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169  RANDOLPH  ST.     I  552  WABASH  AVE. 

CHICAGO,  U.S.A. 


J3L 

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PRICE,   25  CENTS. 


PERRY'S  VICTORY  ON  LAKE  ERIE,  1812. 
Taken  from  "The  Discovery  and  Conquest  of  the  Northwest,"  Etc. 


S 


DOCUMENTARY  HISTORY 


OF  THE   CESSION   OF 


LOUISIANA 


TO    THE 


UNITED  STATES 


TILL  IT   BECAME   AN 


AMERICAN    PROVINCE 


WITH  AN  APPENDIX 
BY 

RUFUS    BLANCHARD 

AUTHOR     OF 

DISCOVERY    AND    CONQUESTS    OF    THE    NORTHWEST,"   ETC. 


CHICAGO  : 

R.  BLANCHARD 

1903 


F 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  3~ear  1903,  by  RUFUS  BLANCHAKDT 
in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,   D.  C. 


P  K  KSS   O  F 

STROM  BKRG,    ALLKN    v\;    CO. 
CHICAGO. 

951'JS 


. 


DEDICATION 


Emile  Loubet,  President  of  France: 

It  seems  appropriate  that  at  the  Centennial  Celebration  at 
St.  Louis  of  the  French  cession  of  Louisiana  to  the  United 
States  our  national  reminiscences  of  such  pleasant  memory 
should  not  be  lost  sight  of. 

Ever  since  the  treaty  of  alliance  between  France  and  the 
United  States  in  1778  there  lias  been  an  uninterrupted  friend 
ship  between  the  Government  and  the  people  of  both  coun 
tries,  respectively,  and  to  you,  the  Representative  of  the  French 
people,  I  dedicate  this  work,  with  a  confidence  that  by  so  doing 
I  represent  the  sentiment  of  the  American  people,  ivhich  is, 
universally,  friendly  to  France.  I  sign  myself,  WITH  GREAT 

RESPECT, 

YOURS  FRATERNALLY  in  behalf  of  the  American  people, 

RUFUS  BLANCHARD. 


M152318 


MEDAL 

TO     COMMEMORATE    THE    TRIUMPH    OF    AMERICAN    INDEPEND 
ENCE STRUCK  BY  THE  FRENCH  GOVERN 
MENT,    1783. 


DEVICE — Head  of  Liberty;  the  hair  blown  back  as  if  by 
the  wind,  against  which  the  goddess  seems  to  be  running  to 
announce  to  the  world  the  tidings  of  her  victories.  On  the 
right  shoulder  she  bears  a  liberty  cap. 

LEGEND  :  "Libertas  Americana,  4  Juil.,  1776" 
REVERSE — Pallas  holding  in  her  left  hand  a  shield,  on 
which  are  t/iree  fleurs  cle  lis  (the  arms  of  France)  ;  opposite  to 
her  is  a  leopard  (England)  in  the  act  of  springing,  into  whose 
breast  she  is  about  to  plunge  a  barbed  javelin  that  she  holds 
in  her  de.vter  hand.  Beneath  the  shield  is  an  infant  strangling 
with  one  hand  a  serpent,  which  he  is  holding  up,  whilst  lie 
stoops  and  chokes  another  found  at  his  feet. 


LEGEND  :     "Non  sine  Diis  Aninwsus  Infans." 

Exergue 
i?th  Oct.,  1777. 
/p//z   Oct.,   ij$i. 

Hercules,  according  to  Grecian  mythology,  was  said  to 
hare  strangled  whilst  in  his  cradle  twfo  serpents  which  had  as 
saulted  him,  having  been  assisted  by  the  protection  of  the  god 
dess  Pallas.  Infant  America,  like  Hercules  in  his  cradle,  had 
destroyed  two  British  armies.  The  two  epochs  of  those  ex 
ploits  are  marked  in  the  exergue,  i?th  Oct.,  1777.  Bnr- 
goync's  surrender  at  Saratoga;  ipth  Oct.,  1781,  Cornwallis' 
surrender  at  Yorktown,  Va.  The  motto  is  from  Horace, 
Ode  4,  Book  III,  v.  20. 

This  medal  is  now  in  the  Word  en  collection  of  the  New 
York  State  Library. 


INTRODUCTION 


At  a  time  when  the  political  conditions  of  Europe  and 
America  were  evanescent,  when  the  heart  of  the  American 
Continent  wax  in  the  germ  cell,  then  fortuitous  circumstances 
came  up  unexpectedly  to  decide  an  issue  that  involved  the 
destinies  of  the  United  States,  and  the  men  capable  of  giving 
directions  to  these  political  issues  were  brought  into  the  arena 
to  solve  them.  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  author  of  the  Declara*- 
tion  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States,  and  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  the  supreme  ruler  of  France,  were  the  two  great 
actors  for  their  countries  respectively. 

Robert  Livingston,  who  had  been  one  of  the  committee 
to  formulate  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  and 
James  Monroe,  destined  to  a  world  wide  fame  as  the  author 
of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  were  the  actors  under  Jefferson  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  and  Barbe  Marbois,  a  great  and 
farseeing  statesman,  on  the  part  of  France.  In  the  following 
pages  the  immense  work  which  these  remarkable  men  accom 
plished  will  be  told  as  briefly  and  plainly  as  the  facts  can  be 
stated  without  omitting  any  link  in  its  chain.  To  this  end 
much  pains  has  been  taken  to  obtain  official  records,  and  here 
it  is  but  just  that  I  acknowledge  obligations  to  Henry  Vig- 
naud,  Secretary  to  Hon.  Horace  Porter,  our  present  Ambassa 
dor  Extraordinary  and  Plenipotentiary  to  France,  for  search 
ing  among  the  archives  of  a  hundred  years  back  to  secure  for 
me  a  fac  simile  of  the  autograph  of  Marbois,  taken  directly 
from  the  original  treaty. 

The  appendix  of  this  work  contains  a  brief  outline  history 
of  the  American  acquisition  of  Oregon,  made  possible  by  the 
purchase  of  Louisiana;  also  the  history  of  other  foreign  ac 
quisitions  to  the  United  States  since  that  time. 

RUFUS  BLANCHARD. 

Chicago,  June,  1903. 


LOUISIANA 


^France  was  the  first  owner  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  She 
became  vested  in  its  title  by  priority  of  discovery  and  explora 
tion  by  La  Salle,  in  1682;  who  navigated  the  Mississippi  to 
its  mouth,  naming  it  Louisiana  in  honor  of  his  sovereign,  the 
King  of  France.  This  immense  domain  included  the  valley  of 
the  Ohio  river  and  all  its  tributaries ;  as  well  as  the  Missouri, 
Arkansas  and  Red  river  valleys,  and  their  tributaries,  extend 
ing  to  the  western  water  shed  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  ' 

Spain  had  already  settled  East  Florida  in  1565  at  St. 
Augustine;  hence  the  Spanish  title  to  Florida  rested  on  the 
basis  of  priority.  Immediately  adjoining  this  settlement  on 
the  north  was  the  Georgia  Colony,  settled  by  Gov.  Oglethorpe 
in  1/32.  This  colony  included  the  present  state  of  Alabama, 
the  southwestern  point  of  which  extended  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Spain  also  owrned  Mexico  as  a  result  of  its  con 
quest  by  Cortez,  in  1521,  the  northern  boundary  of  which 
was  indefinite.  The  English  owned  a  narrow  strip  of 
land  along  the  Atlantic  Coast,  where  they  had  first  settled 
at  Jamestown,  in  1607,  and  at  Plymouth,  in  1620,  and  a  few 
years  later  on  this  coast,  her  thirteen  colonies  were  laying 
the  foundation  of  a  great  nation — a  nation  whose  power  was 
not  then  foreseen.  France  then  had  a  foothold  on  the  St. 
Lawrence  river.  Each  of  these  peoples,  the  English  and  the 
French,  had  a  Laudable  ambition  to  extend  their  settlements 
to  the  west,  which,  as  a  consequence,  produced  a  rivalry  be 
tween  them  whigh  ultimated  in  the  French  and  Indian  war, 
begun  in  1755.  Before  hostilities  commenced  a  compromise 
was  attempted,  and  January,  1755,  opened  with  peace  pro- 


10  Louisiana 

posals  from  France,  by  which  she  offered,  as  an  ultimatum, 
that  the  French  should  retire  west  of  the  Ohio,  and  the  Eng 
lish  east  of  the  Alleghenies. 

This  offer  was  considered  by  England  till  the  7th  of 
March,  when  she  agreed  to  accept  it  on  condition  that  the 
French  would  destroy  all  their  forts  on  the  Ohio  river  and  its 
branches.  The  French,  after  twenty  days,  refused  to  do 
this.*  But  while  the  fruitless  negotiations^were  pending,  both 
sides  were  sending  soldiers  to  America. 

The  issue  involved  in  the  French  and  Indian  war  inter 
ested  every  nation  in  Europe,  no  one  of  which  wished  to  see 
either  of  the  participants  in  it  secure  too  much  of  the  terri 
tory  in  dispute,  lest  the  victor  should  become  sufficiently  pow 
erful  as  a  European  nation  to  destroy  its  equilibrium.  France 
had  positive  purposes  at  which  she  aimed,  the  chief  one  of 
which  was  to  preserve  her  American  possessions,  and  the 
means  to  be  used  in  the  achievement  of  this  end  were  definitely 
settled  upon,  which,  in  brief,  were  to  attack  the  allies  of  Eng 
land  on  the  Continent,  by  which  diversion  New  France  in 
America  was  to  be  made  invulnerable  against  her  rival,  whose 
strength  must  be  largely  occupied  on  the  defensive  at  home. 
The  ultimatum  of  England  was  not  less  clearly  defined 
than  that  of  France,  but  the  means  by  which  it  was  to  be 
brought  about  were  more  complicated.  The  tenacity  with 
which  the  American  colonists  had  clung  to  their  political  rights 
at  the  Albany  convention  of  1754,  as  well  as  the  able  states 
manship  of  the  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and  Pennsylvania 
Assemblies,  not  always  in  harmony  with  the  crown,  had  awak 
ened  a  sense  of  caution  in  the  English  court,  in  their  dealings 
with  their  trans-Atlantic  children,  and  the  question  came  to 
the  surface  whether  it  \vas  better  to  drive  France  entirely  out 

of  America,  or  allow  her  to  retain  enough  there  to  become  a 
*Plain  Facts,  p.  52. 


Louisiana  11 

rival  to  the  English  colonists,  and  thereby  insure  their  loyalty 
through  their  obligations  for  assistance  in  defending  them 
selves  from  the  French.  King  George  II.  shared  these  appre 
hensions,  while  William  Pitt  had  always  been  in  favor  of 
pushing  the  war  in  America  without  fear  of  adverse  conse 
quences. 

'England  and  Russia  had  long  been  friends,  and,  as  soon 
as  war  with  France  appeared  inevitable,  she  made  a  treaty 
with  the  empress  of  Russia,  by  the  condition  of  which  Han 
over  (England's  ally)  was  to  be  protected  by  Russian  troops 
in  the  event  of  a  European  war,  for  which  service  England 
was  to^pay  her.  This  treaty  bore  date  of  September  I3th, 
1755^  *A  few  months  later  both  France  and  Prussia  mani 
fested  dispositions  to  invade  portions  of  Germany,  the  French 
incentive  to  which  was  to  keep  England  busy  at  home,  while 
she  (France)  made  her  American  possessions  secure,  as  al 
ready  stated. 

Russia  was  now  alarmed  lest  she  might  be  attacked  by 
Prussia,  and,  conscious  of  her  inability  to  fulfill  her  treaty 
stipulations  with  England,  as  to  the  protection  of  Hanover, 
she  applied  to  France  for  the  preservation  of  the  neutrality  of 
that  electorate. 

These  accumulating  evidences  of  the  rising  power  of 
Frederick  stimulated  England  to  make  an  alliance  with  him, 
which  was  done  January  i6th,  1756,  although  by  this  treaty 
the  interests  of  Russia,  as  well  as  those  of  Hanover,  were  left 
unprotected.*  The  effect  was  to  unite  the  interests  of  Russia 
with  France,  and  also  those  of  Austria  with  the  same  power, 
although  the  two  had  long  been  enemies. 

(All  this  plotting  and  counter-plotting,  which  by  a  para 
doxical  combination,  transposed  the  friendships  and  enmities 
of  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  grew  out  of  the  issue  between 

*Smollet's  History  of  England,  vol.  4,  p.  178. 


12  Louisiana 

England  and  France,  as  to  which  should  take  possession  of  the 
upper  Ohio  country,  although  the  fortunes  of  war  ultimately 
brought  into  question  the  patent  to  the  title  of  Canada  itself. 

It  began  in  a  land  speculation  of  the  Ohio  company,  whose 
regal  title  to  lands  on  the  Ohio  river  was  not  honored  by  the 
French  Court.  The  issue  broadened  as  the  war  progressed, 
and  after  it  closed,  a  new  theater,  unexpectedly,  opened  before 
the  world,  that  justified  the  arming  of  Europe  to  take  a  hand 
in  its  settlement. 

The  sequel  proved  that  the  fears  of  George  II. ,  King  of 
England,  were  not  without  foundation.  It  has  also  proved, 
that  if  the  policy  of  'Pitt,  the  world's  greatest  statesman  at 
that  time,  did  not  advance  the  interests  of  England,  it  was  ele 
mentary  to  the  birth  of  a  new  nation,  not  less  powerful.  The 
American  Revolution  was  the  result.  It  terminated  in  the 
definitive  treaty  of  peace  held  at  Paris,  September  3rd,  1783. 
To  the  consummation  of  this  treaty,  America  owes  a  lasting 
debt  of  gratitude  to  France  for  her  aid  in  the  American  Revo 
lution.  The  French  Revolution  of  1789  was  one  of  the 
momentous  results  of  the  American  Revolution.  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  came  into  power,  when  the  revolutionary  spirit  in 
France,  though  burnt  out  like  a  spent  volcano,  had  left  the 
vital  forces  of  that  country  unimpaired.  He  commenced  his 
rule  in  France,  in  May,  1802,  under  title  of  First  Consul. 

j  In  1761  a  treaty  had  been  concluded  between  France  and 
Spain  called  a  "Family  Compact,"  by  the  i8th  article  of  which 
either  power  was  obligated  to  indemnify  the  other  power  for 
any  loss  it  sustained  by  conquest.  *  Each  of  these  nations  was 
governed  by  a  Bourbon  King.  This  compact  was  in  full  force 
during  the  various  transfers  of  the  province  of  Louisiana, 
previous  to  its  sale  to  the  United  States,  in  1803.  This  sale 
by  the  French  Republic  was  the  first  act  on  the  part  of  France 
that  was  not  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  this  compact.  The 


Louisiana  13 

relations  between  the  United  States,  France,  Spain  and  Eng 
land  were  in  a  very  critical  condition.  Both  the  American 
and  the  French  Revolutions  had  brought  new  issues  to  the 
great  nations  of  the  world.  America  in' the  plenitude  of  her 
rising  power  in  the  western  continent,  had  now  become  a  fac 
tor  in  the  deliberations  between  France,  England  and  Spain. 
Spain  on  the  ist  of  October,  1800,  concluded  a  treaty  at  San 
Ildefonso  with  France,  by  which,  she  retroceded  to  the  latter 
power  the  entire  province  of  Louisiana,  ^which  province  had 
been  ceded  by  France  to  Spain  in  1/63.  <Ao  limits  had  ever- 
been  set  to  Louisiana,  on  the  west,  except  general  geographical 
limits  by  water  sheds ;  but  on  the  north,  by  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht,  the  forty-ninth  parallel  had  been  considered  the  north 
ern  boundary,  and  this  line  had  not  been  disputed  by  any  na 
tion.  But  the  limits  of  Louisiana  on  the  east  by  the  treaty  of 
1783,  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  had  been 
fixed  on  the  Mississippi  river  as  far  south  as  the  thirty-first 
parallel ;  which  parallel  eastwardly  to  the  Perdido  river  was 
the  southern  boundary  of  the  United  States  as  far  as  it  went, 
and  the  United  States  never  claimed  any  territory  south  of 
this  parallel  until  by  the  treaty  with  Spain  in  1819,  Florida 
was  ceded  by  her  to  the  L^nited  States  for  a  consideration  of 
$5,000,000. 

prance  and  England  being  at  war  at  the  time  of  the  San 
Ildefonso  treaty,  the  retrocession  of  Louisiana  to  France  by 
that  treaty  was  not  made  public,  and  Bonaparte  was  careful 
not  to  divulge  it  by  taking  possession  of  the  province  lest  it 
might  be  attacked  by  England,  whose  navy  was  far  superior 
to  that  of  France.  The  rising  power  of  Napoleon  had  made 
the  nations  of  Europe  anxious  to  make  peace  with  the  French, 
and  England,  with  the  rest,  felt  the  necessity  of  doing  the  same 
thing.  To  this  end  she  concluded  a  treaty  with  France  October 
ist,  1801,  which  was  called  the  treaty  of  Amiens.  Had  Eng- 


Louisiana  15 

land  known  of  the  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  it  is  probable  she 
never  would  have  signed  the  treaty  of  Amiens,  at  least  until 
she  had  by  means  of  her  fleet  taken  New  Orleans  from  the 
French,  in  which  event  the  whole  province  of  Louisiana  would 
have  become  English  territory.)  The  ambition  of  France  to 
again  possess  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  river  was  made 
manifest  by  the  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  and  Napoleon,  in 
spired  by  this  ambition,  looked  forward  to  an  important  ac 
cession  of  power  for  France  in  this  restoration  of  French  ter 
ritory.  To  the  same  end  his  attempt  to  make  the  conquest  of 
Santo  Domingo  was  made.  This  attempt,  owing  to  the  stub 
born  courage  of  the  celebrated  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  who 
had  been  bred  a  slave,  miscarried.  Meantime,  the  English 
began  to  be  jealous  of  the  power  of  France.  They  feared  that 
the  reintroduction  of  French  power  in  America  might  en 
danger  the  safety  of  Canada  itself,  and  the  celebrated  Lord 
Hawkesbury  declared,  "that  the  treaty  of  Amiens  was  only 
experimental  on  the  part  of  England,"  which  declaration 
was  equivalent  to  an  acknowledgment  that  a  subtle  treachery 
underlay  the  peaceful  professions  of  England  in  the  signing 
of  this  treaty. 

All  this  time  Napoleon  had  his  fingers  on  the  pulse  of 
Europe,  and  during  these  palmy  days  of  peace  took  measures 
to  colonize  New  Orleans  with  French  colonies,  and  others 
favorable  to  his  designs.  Here  we  will  leave  him  in  his  happy 
reveries,  till  the  irresistible  current  of  events  awakened  him 
from  his  illusions. 

'On  the  accession  of  Thomas  Jefferson  to  the  presidency 
of  the  United  States,  in  1801,  he  appointed  Robert  R.  Living 
ston  as  Minister  to  France.  Mr.  Livingston  was  one  of  the 
ablest  statesmen  of  that  period,  and  it  is  fortunate  for  the 
United  States  that  a  man  of  such  ability  represented  its  inter 
ests  at  the  French  Court/ 


1(>  Louisiana 

At  the  Treaty  of   Peace  between   England  and   United 
States,  in   1/83,  Spain  had  protested  against  the  Mississippi 
river  as  the  western  boundary  of  the  new  nation;  declaring  that 
the  United  States  should  be  limited  on  the  west  by  the  Alle 
gheny  Mountains.    Later,  when  American  settlements  extended 
to  the  west,  so  as  to  require  a  highway  to  the  ocean,  by  way  of 
the  Mississippi  river,  to  market  their  produce,  she  erected  forts 
on  its  east  bank,  and  persisted  in  retaining  these  forts,  one  at 
Natchez,  and  the  other  at  Walnut  Hills.     This  unfriendly  at 
titude  of  Spain  affected  the  interests  of  the  western  states  to 
such  an  extent  that  it  was  difficult  to  keep  them  from  march 
ing  an  army  to  take  possession  of  New  Orleans,  in  order  to 
obtain  what  they  declared  to  be  their  natural  rights,  namely, 
to  use  the  Mississippi  as  a  great  highway  to  the  sea.     This 
state  of  things  grew  worse,  till  Jay's  treaty  of  1/95,  in  which 
Spain  conceded  the  right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans;  which 
temporarily  modified  the  situation.      But  this  treaty  even   if 
made  in  good  faith  on  the  part  of  Spain,  could  not  have  per 
manently  settled  the  real  issues  at  stake  between  the  two  coun 
tries.     The  treaty,  however,  was  not  lived  up  to  by  Spain  and 
«>ld  scores  were  opened  up  afresh. 

January  7th,  1803,  the  House  of  Representatives  took  ac 
tion  on  this  matter,  as  follows: 

"Resolved,  That  this  house  receive  with  great  sensibility 
the  information  of  a  disposition  in  certain  officers  of  the  Span 
ish  government  at  New  Orleans  to  obstruct  the  navigation  of 
the  River  Mississippi,  as  secured  to  the  United  States  by  the 
most  solemn  stipulations: 

"That  adhering  to  that  humane  and  wise  policy  which 
ought  ever  to  characterize  a  free  people,  and  by  which  the 
United  States  have  always  professed  to  be  governed;  willing 
at  the  same  time  to  ascribe  this  breach  of  compact  to  the  un 
authorized  misconduct  of  certain  individuals,  rather  than  to 


Louisiana  17 

a  want  of  good  faith  on  the  part  of  his  Catholic  Majesty;  and 
relying  with  perfect  confidence  on  the  vigilance  and  wisdom 
of  the  Executive,  they  will  wait  the  issue  of  such  measures  as 
that  department  of  the  government  shall  have  pursued  for 
asserting  the  rights  and  vindicating  the  injuries  of  the  United 
States — holding  it  to  be  their  duty,  at  the  same  time,  to  ex 
press  their  unalterable  determination  to  maintain  the  boun 
daries  and  the  rights  of  navigation  and  commerce  through  the 
River  Mississippi,  as  established  by  existing  treaties." 

/January  loth,  1803,  James  Monroe  was  appointed  by 
President  Jefferson  to  act  with  Mr.  Livingston  in  the  delicate 
and  uncertain  negotiations  with  France  for  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana.  The  following  letters  to  Mr.  Monroe  show  his  con 
fidence  in  him  to  execute  the  important  commission  required 
of  him  : 

"WASHINGTON,  January  loth,  1803. 
"GOVERNOR  MONROE  : 

"Dear  Sir :  I  have  but  a  moment  to  inform  you  that  the 
fever  into  which  the  western  mind  is  thrown  by  the  affair  at 
New  Orleans,  stimulated  by  the  mercantile  and  generally  the 
federal  interest,  threatens  to  overbear  our  peace.  In  this  situ 
ation  we  are  obliged. to  call  on  you  for  a  temporary  sacrifice  of 
yourself  to  prevent- this  greatest  of  evils  in  the  present  pros 
perous  tide  of  our  affairs./  I  shall  to-morrow  nominate  you 
to  the  Senate,  for. an  extraordinary  mission  to  France,  and  the 
circumstances  are  such  as  to  render  it  impossible  to  decline; 
because  the  whole  public  hope  will  be  rested  on  you.  I  wish 
you  to  be  either -in  Richmond  or  Albemarle  till  you  receive 
another  letter  from  me,  which  will  be  within  t\vo  days  hence, 
if  the  Senate  decide  immediately;  or  later,  according  to  the 
time  they  take  to  decide.  In  the  meantime,  pray  work  night 
and  day,  to  arrange  your  affairs  for  a  temporary  absence — 
perhaps  for  a  long  one.  Accept  affectionate  salutations. 

"THOMAS  JEFFERSON/' 


IS  Lonixicuia 

^WASHINGTON,  January  i3th,  1803. 
"GOVERNOR  MONROE  : 

"Dear  Sir:     1  dropped  you  a  line  on  the  loth,  informing 
you  of  a  nomination  I  had  made  of  you  to  the  Senate,  and 
yesterday  I  enclosed  you  their  approbation,  not  having  then 
time  to  write.     The  agitation  of  the  public  mind  on  occasion 
of  the  late  suspension  of  our  right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans  is 
extreme.       This,    in    the    western    country,    is    natural,    and 
grounded  on  operative  motives.     Remonstrances,  memorials, 
etc.,  are  now  circulating  through  the  whole  of  that  country, 
and  signing  by  the  body  of  the  people.     The  measures  which 
we  have  been  pursuing,  being  invisible,   do  not  satisfy  their 
minds ;   something  sensible,   therefore,  has  become  necessary, 
and   indeed  our  object  of  purchasing  New  Orleans  and   the 
Floridas  is  a  measure  likely  to  assume  so  many  shapes  that  no 
instructions  could  be  squared  to  fit  them.     It  was  essential, 
then,  to  send  a  minister  extraordinary  to  be  joined  with  the 
ordinary  one,   with  discretionary  power,  first,  however,   well 
impressed  with  all  our  views,  and  therefore  qualified  to  meet 
and  modify  to^  these  every  form  of  proposition  which  could 
come  from  the  other  party.     This  could  be  done  only  in  fre 
quent  and  full  oral  communication.     Having  determined  on 
this,  there  could  not  be  two  opinions  as  to  the  person.     You 
possessed  the  unlimited  confidence  of  the  administration  and 
of  the  western  people,  and  were  you  to  refuse  to  go,  no  other 
man  can  be  found  who  does  this.     All  eyes  are  fixed  on  you ; 
and   were  you  to  decline,   the  chagrin  would  be  great,  and 
would  shake  under  your  feet  the  high  ground  on  which  you 
stand  with  the  public.     Indeed,  I  know  nothing  which  would 
pnxluce  such  a  shock;  for  on  the  event  of  this  mission  depends 
the  future  destinies  of  this  republic.     If  we  cannot,  by  a  pur 
chase  of  the  country,  ensure  to  ourselves  a  course  of  perpetual 
peace  and  friendship  with  all  nations,  then,  as  war  cannot  be 


Louisiana  19 

far  distant,  it  behooves  us  immediately  to  be  preparing  for 
that  course,  without,  however,  hastening  it ;  and  it  may  be 
necessary  (on  your  failure  on  the  continent)  to  cross  the 
channel.  We  shall  get  entangled  in  European  politics,  and 
figuring  more,  be  much  -less  happy  and  prosperous.  This 
can  only  be  prevented  by  a  successful  issue  to  your  present 
mission.  I  am  sensible,  after  the  measures  you  have  taken  for 
getting  into  a  different  line  of  business,  that  it  will  be  a  great 
sacrifice  on  your  part ;  and  presents,  from  the  season  and  other 
circumstances,  serious  difficulties.  But  some  men  are  born  for 
the  public.  Nature,  by  fitting  them  for  the  service  of  the  hu 
man  race  on  a  broad  scale,  has  stamped  them  with  the  evi 
dences  of  her  destination  and  their  duty. 

"THOMAS  JEFFERSON. '">" 

Mr.  Monroe  accepted  the  appointment  of  President  Jeffer 
son  and  immediately  made  preparations  to  sail  for  Paris. 

Meanwhile,  Napoleon,  now  fully  aware  of  the  uncertainty 
with  which  the  peace  of  Amiens  held  England  in  check,  was 
ready  to  open  negotiations  with  Livingston  and  Monroe,  for 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  This  conviction  had  been  forced 
upon  him  by  the  action  of  a  party  in  England  that  had  sworn 
implacable  hatred  to  France.  On  March  8,  1803,  the  King 
of  England  sent  a  message  to  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament, 
in  which  he  gave  intimation  of  an  approaching  rupture.  Soon 
after  England  made  a  call  for  10,000  seamen.  M.  Talleyrand 
and  the  French  Minister  now  threw  off  all  disguise  and 
acknowledged  to  the  British  Minister  that  the  embarkation  of 
troops,  destined  for  America,  had  been  countermanded  in  con 
sequence  of  the  action  of  the  English  Court.  The  critical 
situation  between  France  and  England  was  discussed  in  a 
private  conference  in  the  Tuileries,  in  which  discussion  Napo 
leon  took  a  prominent  part.  He  said  to  his  counselors :  "The 


Louisiana  21 

principles  of  maritime  supremacy  are  subversive  of  one  of  the 
noblest  rights  that  nature,  science  ami  genius  have  secured  to 
man.  I  mean  the  right  of  traveling  every  sea  with  as  much 
liberty  as  the  bird  flies  through  the  air;  of  making  use  of  the 
waves,  winds,  climates  and  productions  of  the  globe;  of  bring 
ing  near  to  one  another  by  a  bold  navigation,  nations  that  have 
been  separated  since  the  creation;  of  carrying  civilization  into 
regions  that  are  a  prey  to  ignorance  and  barbarism.  This  is 
what  England  would  usurp  over  all  other  nations."  Here,  the 
English  Minister  asked  him  if  the  English  had  not  the 
same  motive  for  dreading  a  continental  supremacy  as  the 
French?  Continuing,  he  said,  "France  obliges  us  to  recollect 
the  injury  which  she  did  us  twenty-five  years  since,  by  form 
ing  an  alliance  with  our  revolted  colonies.  Jealous  of  our 
commerce,  navigation  and  riches,  she  wishes  to  annihilate 
them."  After  this  English  retort,  Napoleon  said  to  his  ad 
visers,  "Propose  your  theories  and  your  abstract  propositions, 
and  see  if  they  can  resist  the  efforts  of  the  usurpers  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  sea.  Leave  commerce  ami  navigation  in 
the  exclusive  possession  of  a  single  people,  and  the  globe  will 
be  subjugated  by  their  arms,  and  the  gold  which  occupies  the 
place  of  armies."  JKapoleon  then  for  the  first  time  announced 
his  policy  to  be  pursued  respecting  the  United  States.  He  said, 
"To  emancipate  nations  from  the  commercial  tyranny  of  Eng 
land,  it  is  necessary  to  balance  her  influence  by  a  maritime 
power  that  may  one  day  become  her  rival ;  that  power  is  the 
United  States/YThe  English  aspire  to  dispose  of  all  the  riches 
of  the  world.  I  shall  be  useful  to  the  whole  universe,  if  I 
can  prevent  their  ruling  America  as  they  rule  Asia."  The 
English  people  were  pronounced  through  the  English  press 
against  the  policy  of  Xapoleon.  Both  nations  under  the  re 
sentful  influence  of  these  recriminations  began  to  make  pre 
parations  for  war  which  might  result  from  the  breaking  of 
the  peace  of  Amiens. 


22  Louisiana 

'  April  10,  1803,  after  having  attended  the  solemnities 
of  Easter  services,  Napoleon  called  together  his  two  principal 
ministers,  and  declared  to  them  in  plain  terms  his  determina 
tion  to  cede  Louisiana  to  the  United  States,  and  after  a  long 
rehearsal  of  the  political  conditions  of  England  and  France, 
he  said  :  "Irresolution  and  deliberation  are  no  longer  in  sea 
son.  I  renounce  Louisiana.  It  is  not  only  New  Orleans  that 
I  will  cede,  it  is  the  whole  colony  without  any  reservation. 
*  *  *  I  renounce  it  with  the  greatest  regret.  *  * 
I  direct  you  to  negotiate  this  affair  with  the  envoys  of  the 
United  States.  Do  not  await  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Monroe,  but 
have  an  interview  this  very  day  wtfth  Mr.  Livingston." 


plenipotentiary  then  by  way  of  getting  further  instructions 
asked  of  Bonaparte,  whether  the  rights  of  sovereignty  were 
to  be  considered  in  the  cession,  to  which  Bonaparte  replied, 
"You  are  giving  me  in  all  its  perfection  the  ideology  of  the 
laws  of  nature  and  nations  ;  but  I  require  money  to  make  war 
on  the  richest  nation  in  the  world.  Send  your  maxims  to 
London.  I  am  sure  they  will  be  greatly  admired  there;  and 
yet,  no  great  attention  is  paid  to  them  when  the  question  is 
the  occupation  of  the  finest  regions  of  Asia.  Perhaps  it  will 
also  be  objected  to  me  that  the  Americans  may  be  found  too 
powerful  for  Europe  in  two  or  three  centuries;  but  my  fore 
sight  does  not  embrace  such  remote  fears.  Besides,  we  may 
hereafter  expect  to  hear  of  rivalries  among  the  members  of 
that  union.  The  confederations  that  are  called  perpetual  only 
last  till  one  of  the  contracting  parties  finds  it  to  his  interest 
to  break  them,*  and  it  is  to  prevent  the  danger  to  which  the 
colossal  power  of  England  exposes  us  that  I  will  provide  a 
remedy."  Napoleon  was  fully  aware  that  the  cabinet  at 
Washington  did  not  know  of  his  willingness  to  sell  the  whole 

"This  prophecy  was  fulfilled  when  the  Rebellion  of  the  Southern  States 
came  in  1861. 


24  Louisiana 

province  of  Louisiana,  and  he  seemed  to  be  well  aw&re  that 
Mr.  Monroe  must  have  secret  instructions  from  his  govern 
ment,  and  authority  to  use  his  own  discretion,  as  to  unexpected 
points  that  might  arise  in  the  course  of  the  negotiations.  In 
this  premise  Napoleon  had  a  just  conception  of  the  entire  case 
at  issue. 

The  conferences  between  Mr.  Livingston  and  M.  Barbe 
Marbois,  to  whom  Napoleon  had  confided  the  negotiations,  be 
gan  immediately;  but  Mr.  Livingston  had  not  received  his  in 
structions — naturally  cautious,  he  became  suspicious  that  the 
pretension  to  cede  Louisiana  to  the  United  States  was  an  artifice 
to  lull  his  country  into  an  ill  founded  security,  while  the  French 
were  making  preparations  to  defend  Louisiana.  It  was  too 
good  to  be  true,  as  he  thought,  when  M.  Marbois  made  a  propo 
sition  to  him  for  a  cession  of  the  whole  province.  At  the  be 
ginning  of  these  preliminary  discussions,  news  came  that  Mr. 
Monroe  had  arrived  at  Havre,  when  Mr.  Livingston  at  once 
wrote  him  the  following  letter: 

"PARIS,  April  10,  1803. 

"Dear  Sir  :  I  congratulate  you  on  your  safe  arrival.  We 
have  long1  and  anxiously  wished  for  you.  God  grant  that  your 
mission  may  answer  yours  and  the  public  expectation.  Wai- 
may  do  something  for  us ;  nothing  else  would.  I  have  paved 
the  way  for  you,  and  if  you  could  add  to  my  memoirs  an  as 
surance  that  we  were  now  in  possession  of  New  Orleans,  we 
should  do  well.  *  *  *  I  have  apprised  the  minister  of 
your  arrival,  and  told  him  you  would  be  here  on  Tuesday  or 
Wednesday.  Present  my  compliments  and  Mrs.  L.'s  to  Mrs. 
Monroe,  and  believe  me,  dear  sir, 

"Your  friend  and  humble  servant, 

"ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON. 
"To  his  Excellency  James  Monroe." 


Louisiana  25 

Mr.  Monroe  arrived  in  Paris  on  the  I2th  of  April  and  im 
mediately  held  a  conference  with  his  colleague  Mr.  Living 
ston,  finding  him  still  anxious  with  doubt  and  misgiving. 
These  two  distinguished  men  enjoyed  a  mutual  friendship 
and  confidence  perfected  by  years  of  labor  in  one  common 
cause,  the  Independence  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Monroe's 
arrival  at  Paris  had  aroused  the  suspicions  of  the  English 
Ambassador,  although  the  object  of  his  arrival  could  not 
positively  be  known  at  London  until  the  resolutions  of  the 
Amencan  Congress  became  public) 

\M.  Marbois  had  been  much  interested  in  American  Inde 
pendence,  having"  resided  in  Philadelphia  during  the  progres 
sive  steps  that  brought  it  about,  assisting  the  cause  by  every 
means  in  his  power,  in  doing  which  he  acted  on  the  principles 
of  the  Treaty  of  Alliance  of  1778,  between  United  States  and 
France.  Both  Mr.  Livingston  and  Mr.  Monroe  were  well  ac 
quainted  with  hirrD  Here  we  behold  three  negotiators  acting 
together  to  bring  about  one  of  the  most  important  treaties 
that  the  United  States  ever  entered  into  with  a  foreign  power, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  treaty  of  1783,  at  Paris,  which 

sheathed  the  sword  of  the  American  Revolution.  ( M.  de  Mar- 

\ 

bois  opened  these  negotiations  by  proposing  to  CEDE  THE  EN 
TIRE  TERRITORY  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES,  instead  of  the  territory 
south  of  the  parallel  of  31  degrees  which  contained  New  Or 
leans,  the  latter  being  all  that  Mr.  Jefferson  had  expected ;  and 
even  the  cession  of  that  had  been  considered  a  matter  of  great 
uncertainty.  This  offer  on  the  part  of  M.  de  Marbois  was  a 
most  agreeable  surprise  to  the  American  negotiators.  As 
the  deliberations  were  continued,  all  doubts  as  to  the  good 
faith  of  Napoleon  in  this  transaction  vanished.  While  Mar 
bois'  proposition  broadened  the  arena  in  which  the  American 
negotiators  were  unexpectedly  to  act,  a  new  perplexity  was 
thrust  upon  them.  It  was  impossible  for  them  to  get  farther 


Louisiana  27 

instructions  from  their  government,  while  it  was  necessary  to 
act  promptly,  as  delay  might  defeat  their  whole  plan.)  The 
Treaty  of  Amiens  might  be  broken  at  any  day  by  England,  in 
which  case  an  English  fleet  might  sail  up  the  Mississippi  river, 
take  New  Orleans,  and  thereby  secure  Louisiana  to  the  British 
Crown,  against  which  attack  the  Americans  were  defenseless. 
Spain  was  still  in  possession  of  New  Orleans.  The  Treaty 
by  which  she  had  ceded  it  to  France  two  years  before  being  a 
secret  Treaty,  a  formal  transfer  of  this  territory  from  Spain 
to  France  had  never  been  made,  the  better  to  preserve  this 
secrecy.  Meantime  the  American  negotiators  were  well  aware 
that  inasmuch  as  Spain  might  protest  against  the  transfer  of  it 
to  France  by  the  United  States,  it  was  quite  possible  that  Spain 
might  refuse  to  surrender  the  territory  in  question  to  the  United 
States.  In  this  exigency  the  American  negotiators  took  upon 
themselves  responsibilities  unknown  and  unpracticed  by  pleni 
potentiaries  acting  for  their  government.  Nothing  definite 
as  to  the  western  limits  of  Louisiana  could  be  arrived  at^but 
the  negotiators  on  each  side  agreed  to  leave  such  limits  to  be 
decided  in  the  future,  using  only  the  general  expressions,  that 
the  boundaries  of  the  province  should  be  the  same  as  existed 
in  former  transfers  between  Spain  and  France.  The  great 
issue  at  stake,  and  points  to  be  settled,  were  harmoniously 
made  by  the  negotiators  on  both  sides,  without  providing  for 
incidents  that  might  arise  in  the  practical  fulfillment  of  the 
Treaty,  and  April  30,  1803,  each  of  them  signed  it  with 
a  genuine  feeling  of  good  fellowship  towards  each  other,  as 
well  as  \vith  a  consciousness  that  they  had  served  the  best  in 
terests  of  the  two  nations  which  they  represented^  This  done, 
they  all  arose  and  shook  hands,  when  Mr.  Livingston  said : 
"Wejiave  lived  long,  but  this  is  the  noblest  work  of  our  whole 
lives.  The  treaty  which  we  have  just  signed  has  not  been  ob- 
Tained  by  art  or  dictated  by  force ;  equally  advantageous  to  the 


ouisiana  29 

two  contracting  parties,  it  will  change  vast  solitudes  into  flour 
ishing  districts.  From  this  day  the  United  States  take  their 
place  among  the  powers  of  the  first  rank.  The  English  lose 
all  exclusive  influence  in  the  affairs  of  America.  *  *  * 
But  if  wars  are  inevitable,  France  will  hereafter  have  in  the  ^^J 
New  World,  a  natural  friend."  The  English  Government  did  \l 
not  suspect  that  a  cession  of  the  United  States  had  been  made  ; 
and  they  did  not  know  that  Spain  had  ceded  Louisiana  to  the 
French  two  years  before,  owing  to  the  well  kept  secrecy  as  to 
the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  San  Ildefonsov;  Four  days  after  the 
signing  of  the  Louisiana  Treaty,  Napoleon  made  a  demand 
upon  the  British  Government  that  the  Independence  of  the 
Island  of  Malta  should  be  guaranteed  by  Austria,  Russia  and 
Prussia,  the  allies  of  England ;  an  issue  which  had  been  pend 
ing  between  France  and  England  a  long  time.  "If  this  pro 
posal  is  rejected,"  said  Bonaparte,  "it  is  manifest  that  England 
has  never  wished  to  execute  the  Treaty  of  Amiens."  On  the 
22nd  of  May,  less  than  a  month  after  the  signing  of  the 
Treaty,  England  commenced  hostilities  by  the  capture  of  some 
French  merchantmen.  On  the  same  day  Bonaparte  ratified 
the  Louisiana  Treaty  of  Cession,  as  it  was  important  that  this 
formality  should  take  place  on  the  part  of  France,  in  order  to 
leave  no  ground  for  considering  Louisiana  as  still  French. 
When  the  English  Ministers  had  been  informed  of  the  object 
of  Mr.  Monroe's  mission  (previous  to  the  publication  of  the 
treaty),  they  made  a  proposition  to  Rufus  King,  the  American 
Envoy  at  London,  to  the  effect  that  they  take  the  province  of 
Louisiana  with  the  concurrence  of  the  United  States,  in  which 
case  Mr.  King  was  given  to  understand  that  if  his  government 
gave  its  consent  to  this  design  the  province  should  be  retro- 
ceded  to  the  United  States  after  having  been  taken  from 
France.  Of  course,  such  a  proposition  was  rejected,  nor  was 
it  necessary  to  state  the  reason  why.  vSoon  after  this  the 


30  Louisiana 

British  Government  were  officially  informed  by  the  United 
States  of  the  ceding  of  Louisiana  by  treaty,  when  Lord 
Hawkesbury  gave  a  satisfactory  answer  respecting  the  ces 
sion.  The  treaties  were  forwarded  to  Washington  for  ratifica 
tion,  arriving  there  July  4,  1803.  M.  Pichon,  the  charge 
d'affaires  of  France,  had  orders  to  transmit  them  to  M.  Laus- 
sat,  the  prefect  of  the  Province  of  Louisiana.  Meantime  the 
Spanish  Minister  at  \Yashington  stated  that  he  had  orders 
from  his  government  to  warn  the  United  States  against  the 
ratification  of  the  treaties,  on  the  ground  that  France  had  con 
tracted  an  engagement  with  Spain  not  to  cede  it  to  any  other 
power  without  the  consent  of  Spain. 

Pending  these  attempts  on  the  part  of  Spanish  officials  to 
prevent  the  consummation  of  the  treaty,  President  Jefferson 
called  an  extra  session  of  Congress,  which  was  opened  on  the 
1 7th  of  October.  Measures  were  immediately  taken  to  justify 
and  carry  into  effect  the  treaty,  but  not  without  some  opposi 
tion.  No  provision  had  ever  been  made  by  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  for  accession  of  territory,  notwithstand 
ing  which  the  Senate  approved  the  treaties  by  a  vote  of  24 
against  7.  President  Jefferson  ratified  the  treaty  October  21, 
1803.  The  House  of  Representatives,  after  some  opposition, 
concurred.  This  prompt  and  hasty  action  of  President  Jeffer 
son  was  not  consistent  with  his  intense  democratic  convictions. 
But  the  end  justified  the  means.  Imperialism  could  hardly 
have  taken  a  greater  responsibility  than  President  Jefferson 
was  obliged  to  take  for  the  general  welfare  of  the  nation,  and 
any  opposition  that  either  England  or  Spain  could  make  would 
have  caused  a  war  with  the  United  States,  a  result  which 
neither  of  these  powers  dared  to  face  in  the  unsettled  condi 
tion  of  Europe  at  that  time. 

This  firm  action  on  the  part  of  the  American  Congress 
had  its  effect  upon  Spain,  who  did  not  dare  to  take  the  respon- 


Louisiana  31 

sibility  of  arousing  the  war  sentiment  of  Europe.  Accord 
ingly,  a  few  months  later,  the  King  of  Spain  instructed  his 
Minister  as  follows : 

"EXTRACT  FROM  A  LETTER  WRITTEN  BY  DON  PEDRO  DEVAL- 
LOS,  MINISTER  OF  STATE  OF  His  CATHOLICK  MAJESTY, 
TO  CHARLES  PINCKNEY,  ESQ.,  DATED  AT  THE  PRADO, 
FEBRUARY  10,  1804. 

"At  the  same  time  that  the  Minister  of  His  Majesty  in 
the  United  States  is  charged  to  inform  the  American  Gov 
ernment  respecting  the  falsity  of  the  rumour  referred  to,  he 
has  likewise  orders  to  renounce  his  opposition  to  the  alienation 
of  Louisiana,  made  by  France,  notwithstanding  the  solid 
reasons  on  which  it  is  founded ;  thereby  giving  a  new  proof  of 
his  benevolence  and  friendship  towards  the  United  States." 

"COPY  OF  A  LETTER  FROM  THE  MARQUIS  OF  CASA  YRUJO  TO 
THE  SECRETARY  OF  STATE. 

"Sir:  The  explanation  which  the  Government  of 
France  has  given  to  His  Catholick  Majesty  concerning  the 
sale  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States,  and  the  amicable  dis 
position  on  the  part  of  the  King  my  master  toward  these 
States,  have  determined  him  to  abandon  the  opposition,  which 
at  a  prior  period,  and  with  the  most  substantial  motives,  he 
had  manifested  against  that  transaction.  In  consequence  and 
by  special  order  of  His  Majesty  I  have  the  pleasure  to  com 
municate  to  you  his  royal  intentions  on  an  affair  so  important ; 
well  persuaded  that  the  American  Government  will  see,  in 
this  conduct  of  the  King  my  master,  a  new  proof  of  his  con 
sideration  for  the  United  States,  and  that  they  will  corre 
spond  with  a  true  reciprocity,  with  the  sincere  friendship  of 
the  King,  of  which  he  has  given  so  many  proofs. 

"God  preserve  you  many  years. 

"Philadelphia,  I5th  May,  1804. 

"To  JAMES  MADISON,  ESQ." 


32  Louisiana 

President  Jefferson  and  the  two  Houses  of  Congress 
now  ordered  that  the  laws  of  the  United  States  should  be 
proclaimed  and  executed  in  the  ceded  province  of  Louisi 
ana.  Before  this  could  be  done  it  was  necessary  that  Spain 
should  formally  cede  the  province  to  France,  and  that 
France  in  turn  should  cede  the  same  to  the  United  States. 
On  the  3Oth  of  November,  M.  Laussat,  commissioner  of  the 
French  Government,  at  New  Orleans,  announced  a  proclama 
tion  to  the  Louisianians,  as  follows :  "The  approach  of  a 
war  which  threatens  the  four  quarters  of  the  world  has  given 
a  new  direction  to  the  beneficent  views  of  France  towards 
Louisiana.  She  has  ceded  it  to  the  United  States  of  America. 
The  treaty  secures  to  you  all  the  advantages  and  immunities 
of  citizens  of  the  United  States.  *  *  *  May  a  Louisian- 
ian  and  a  Frenchman  never  meet  now  or  hereafter  in  any  part 
of  the  world,  without  feeling  sentiments  of  affection,  and  with 
out  being  mutually  disposed  to  call  one  another  brothers." 
On  the  same  day  the  Spanish  troops  and  militia  w^ere  drawn  up 
in  front  of  the  City  Hall  in  New  Orleans.  The  French  and 
Spanish  commissioners  came  to  the  place,  followed  by  a  pro 
cession  of  the  citizens  of  their  respective  nations.  Three  chairs 
were  arranged  in  the  Council  Chamber,  the  Spanish  Minister 
occupying  the  middle  one,  when  the  French  Minister  presented 
to  him  the  decree  of  October  15,  1802,  by  which  the  King 
of  Spain  ordered  his  representative  to  deliver  the  colony  to 
the  French  plenipotentiary.  Next  the  French  Minister  pro 
duced  the  authority  of  Napoleon  to  take  possession  of  the 
country  in  the  name  of  the  French  people.  After  these  for 
malities  the  Spanish  Governor,  leaving  his  seat,  delivered  to 
the  French  commissioner  the  keys  of  the  city.  The  citizens  of 
Louisiana,  who  wished  to  remain  in  the  province,  were  then 
absolved  from  their  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  Spanish  King.  A 
signal  was  then  given  by  the  firing  of  cannon,  when  the  Span- 


Louisiana  33 

ish  colors  were  lowered  and  the  French  hoisted.  The  French 
sovereignty  lasted  from  the  3Oth  of  November  to  the  2Oth  of 
December.  This  change  of  nationality  and  government  was  not 
well  understood,  especially  in  the  rural  districts  along  the  river, 
and  it  was  only  by  action  on  the  part  of  M.  Laussat,  the  French 
Governor,  that  anarchy  was  prevented.  The  United  States 
had  taken  the  precaution  to  send  a  detachment  of  soldiers  un 
der  the  command  of  General  Wilkinson,  to  take  a  position  on 
the  1 7th  and  iSth  of  December,  on  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  just  above  New  Orleans.  On  the  2Oth  of  December,  on 
the  day  appointed  for  the  delivery  of  the  colony  to  the  United 
States,  M.  Laussat,  the  French  Governor,  accompanied  by  a 
numerous  retinue,  went  to  the  City  Hall,  where  he  introduced 
the  American  troops  into  the  Capital.  M.  Claiborne,  the 
American  Governor  of  Mississippi,  and  General  Wilkinson, 
were  received  in  the  City  Hall  and  placed  on  the  two  sides  of 
the  French  prefect,  when  the  Treaty  of  Cession,  the  respective 
powers  of  the  commissioners  and  the  certificate  of  the  exchange 
of  ratifications  were  read,  M.  Laussat  pronouncing  these 
words :  "In  conformity  with  the  Treaty,  I  put  the  United 
States  in  possession  of  Louisiana  and  its  dependencies.  The 
citizens  and  inhabitants  who  wish  to  remain  here,  and  obey  the 
laws,  are  from  this  moment  exonerated  from  the  oath  of  fidel 
ity  to  the  French  Republic." 

During  the  twenty  days  of  French  sovereignty,  the  French 
flag  had  been  displayed  from  the  City  Hall,  where  it  had  been 
beheld  by  French  citizens  with  a  homage,  patriotism  and  affec 
tion  that  always  must  command  the  respect  of  every  person,  to 
whatsoever  nation  he  owes  allegiance.  When  the  change  of 
flao-s  came  the  United  States  flag  was  raised,  while  at  the  same 

o 

instant  the  French  flag  was  lowered ;  and  when  they  met  mid 
way,  both  were  kept  stationary  for  a  few  instants,  while  the 
artillery  and  trumpets  celebrated  the  union  to  emblematize  the 


34  Louisiana 

harmony  between  the  two  nations  as  the  one  resigned  its  au 
thority  and  the  other  assumed  its  authority  over  the  Province 
of  Louisiana.  Next,  the  flag  of  the  United  States  rose  to  its 
full  height.  The  Americans  shouted  with  joy;  the  colors  of 
the  French  Republic  were  lowered  and  received  in  the  arms  of 
the  French,  who  had  guarded  them,  while  their  regrets  were 
openly  expressed ;  and  to  render  a  last  token  of  homage  to  their 
flag,  the  French  sergeant-major  wrapped  it  around  his  body 
as  a  scarf,  and  ornate  with  its  folds,  traversed  the  principal 
streets  of  the  city  till  he  came  to  the  house  of  the  French  com 
missioner.  A  troop  of  French  patriots  accompanied  him  and 
were  saluted  in  passing  before  the  American  lines,  who  pre 
sented  arms  to  them  as  a  token  of  respect.  When  M.  Laussat 
received  the  flag  that  had  been  wrapped  around  the  body  of 
the  sergeant-major,  the  latter  said  to  him :  "It  is  into  your 
hands  that  we  deposit  this  symbol  of  the  tie  which  has  tran 
siently  connected  us  with  France.  We  deposit  it  with  you  as 
the  last  proof  of  our  affection."  M.  Laussat  replied,  "May  the 
prosperity  of  Louisiana  be  eternal." 

Mr.  Claiborne,  the  American  commissioner  who  admin 
istered  the  government,  now  issued  a  proclamation  guarantee 
ing  to  the  inhabitants  religious,  civil  and  private  rights.  Dur 
ing  these  ceremonials  the  Spanish,  French  and  American  offi 
cials  had  neglected  nothing  to  maintain  harmony  between  the 
three  nations. 

[The  conditions  which  had  brought  about  this  immense  ac 
cession  to  the  territorial  growth  and  wealth  and  power  to  the 
United  States  were  dramatic.  The  power  of  the  British  na 
tion  was  the  basic  foundation  for  the  whole.  This  power  had 
been  the  means  of  dispossessing  the  French  of  the  Island  of 
Santo  Domingo,  which  Bonaparte  had  intended  as  a  base  of 
operations  wherewith  to  make  invulnerable  his  defenses  of  the 
Province  of  Louisiana.  But  there  was  a  limit  to  Bonaparte's 


Louisiana  35 

ambition,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  knowing  he  could  not  re 
tain  Louisiana,  he  took  effective  measures  to  secure  it  to  the 
United  States,  who  had  never  been  his  enemy,  and  from  whom 
he  had  a  reasonable  assurance  of  friendship!?  England  had 
boasted  that  she  had  but  one  enemy  in  France,  and  that  enemy 
was  General  Bonaparte,  which  title  she  always  gave  him,  in 
stead  of  His  Majesty,  the  Emperor. 

There  was  a  law  of  nature  that  made  it  inevitable  that 
the  entire  territory  intervening  between  the  Louisiana  Province 
and  the  Pacific  coast,  must  ultimately  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  possessors  of  Louisiana.  Had  the  English  possessed  this 
province,  it  meant  in  quick  succession  the  whole  country  be 
tween  the  Mississippi  river  and  the  Pacific  ocean. 

Though  the  English  conquered  Napoleon  at  last,  at  Wa 
terloo,  this  victory  was  a  small  offset  for  having  been  deprived 
of  an  empire  larger  than  the  United  States,  and  making  its 
power  transcendent  on  the  continent  of  America. 

The  friendship  between  the  United  States  and  England, 
commendable  as  it  is  universal,  is  the  result  of  commercial  af 
finity.  The  friendship  between  the  United  States  and  the 
French,  only  in  part  from  commercial  affinity,  is  abiding  and 
permanent,  because,  that  it  was  through  her  assistance,  first, 
that  we  gained  our  Independence,  and  next  that  our  domain 
extends  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  which  must  ultimately 
assure  the  verification  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte's  prophecy. 

TREATY  BETWEEN  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  AND  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  CONCERNING  THE  CESSION  OF  LOUISIANA, 
SIGNED  AT  PARIS  THE  3OTH  OF  APRIL,  1803. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  the 
First  Consul  of  the  French  Republic,  in  the  name  of  the  French 
people,  desiring  to  remove  all  source  of  misunderstanding  rela 
tive  to  objects  of  discussion,  mentioned  in  the  second  and  fifth 
articles  of  the  convention  of  the  Eighth  Vendemiaire,  an  9 


36  Louisiana 

(30th  of  September,  1800),  relative  to  the  rights  claimed  by 
the  United  States,  in  virtue  of  the  treaty  concluded  at  Madrid 
the  j/th  of  October,  1795,  between  His  Catholic  Majesty  and 
the  United  States,  and  willing-  to  strengthen  the  union  and 
friendship  which,  at  the  time  of  the  said  convention,  was 
happily  re-established  between  the  two  nations,  have  respect 
ively  named  their  plenipotentiaries;  to  wit,  the  President  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate  of  the  said  States,  Robert  R.  Livingston, 
minister  plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States,  and  James  Mon 
roe,  minister  plenipotentiary  and  envoy  extraordinary  of  the 
said  States,  near  the  government  of  the  French  Republic;  and 
the  First  Consul,  in  the  name  of  the  French  people,  the  French 
citizen  Barbe  Marbois,  minister  of  the  public  treasury,  who, 
after  having  respectively  exchanged  their  full  powers,  have 
agreed  to  the  following  articles : 

ARTICLE  I. 

Whereas,  by  the  article  the  third  of  the  treaty  concluded 
at  San  Ildefonso,  the  9th  Vendemiaire,  an  9  (ist  October, 
1800),  between  the  First  Consul  of  the  French  Republic  and 
His  Catholic  Majesty,  it  was  agreed  as  follows :  "His  Catho 
lic  Majesty  promises  and  engages,  on  his  part,  to  retrocede 
to  the  French  Republic,  six  months  after  the  full  and  entire 
execution  of  the  conditions  and  stipulations  herein  relative  to 
his  Royal  Highness,  the  Duke  of  Parma,  the  Colony  or 
Province  of  Louisiana,  with  the  same  extent  that  it  now  has  in 
the  hands  of  Spain,  and  that  it  had  when  France  possessed  it; 
and  such  as  it  should  be  after  the  treaties  subsequently  entered 
into  between  Spain  and  other  States."  And,  whereas,  in  pur 
suance  of  the  treaty,  and  particularly  of  the  third  article,  the 
French  Republic  has  an  incontestable  title  to  the  domain,  and 
to  the  possession  of  the  said  territory :  The  First  Consul  of 
the  French  Republic,  desiring  to  give  to  the  United  States  a 


Louisiana  37 

strong  proof  of  his  friendship,  doth  hereby  cede  to  the  said 
United  States,  in  the  name  of  the  French  Republic,  for  ever  and 
in  full  sovereignty,  the  said  territory,  with  all  its  rights  and 
appurtenances,  as  fully  and  in  the  same  manner  as  they  had 
been  acquired  by  the  French  Republic  in  virtue  of  the  above 
mentioned  treaty  concluded  with  His  Catholic  Majesty. 

ARTICLE  II. 

In  the  cession  made  by  the  preceding  article  are  included 
the  adjacent  islands  belonging  to  Louisiana,  all  public  lots  and 
squares,  vacant  lands,  and  all  public  buildings,  fortifications, 
barracks,  and  other  edifices  which  are  not  private  property. 
The  archives,  papers,  and  documents,  relative  to  the  domain 
and  sovereignty  of  Louisiana  and  its  dependencies,  will  be  left 
in  the  possession  of  the  commissaries  o<f  the  United  States,  and 
copies  will  be  afterwards  given  in  due  form  to  the  magistrates 
and  municipal  officers  of  such  of  the  said  papers  and  docu 
ments  as  may  be  necessary  to  them. 

ARTICLE  III. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  territory  shall  be  incorpo 
rated  in  the  Union  of  the  LTnited  States,  and  admitted  as  soon 
as  possible,  according  to  the  principles  of  the  federal  Constitu 
tion,  to  the  enjoyments  of  all  the  rights,  advantages,  and  im 
munities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States ;  and  in  the  meantime 
they  shall  be  maintained  and  protected  in  the  free  enjoyment  of 
their  liberty,  property,  and  the  religion  which  they  profess. 

ARTICLE  IV. 

There  shall  be  sent  by  the  Government  of  France  a  com 
missary  to  Louisiana,  to  the  end  that  he  do  every  act  neces 
sary,  as  well  to  receive  from  the  officers  of  his  Catholic 
Majesty  the  said  country  and  its  dependencies,  in  the  name  of 
the  French  Republic,  if  it  has  not  been  already  done,  as  to 
transmit  it  in  the  name  of  the  French  Republic  to  the  commis 
sary  or  agent  of  the  United  States. 


38  Louisiana 

ARTICLE  V. 

Immediately  after  the  ratification  of  the  present  treaty  by 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  in  case  that  of  the  First 
Consul  shall  have  been  previously  obtained,  the  commissary 
of  the  French  Republic  shall  remit  all  the  military  posts  of 
New  Orleans,  and  other  parts  of  the  ceded  territory,  to  the 
commissary  or  commissaries  named  by  the  President  to  take 
possession ;  the  troops,  whether  of  France  or  Spain,  who  may 
be  there,  shall  cease  to  occupy  any  military  post  from  the  time 
of  taking  possession,  and  shall  be  embarked  as  soon  as  possible, 
in  the  course  of  three  months  after  the  ratification  of  this 

treaty. 

ARTICLE  VI. 

The  United  States  promise  to  execute  such  treaties  and 
articles  as  may  have  been  agreed  between  Spain  and  the  tribes 
and  nations  of  Indians,  until,  by  mutual  consent  of  the  United 
States  and  the  said  tribes  or  nations,  other  suitable  articles 
shall  have  been  agreed  upon. 

ARTICLE  VII. 

As  it  is  reciprocally  advantageous  to  the  commerce  of 
France  and  the  United  States  to  encourage  the  communication 
of  both  nations  for  a  limited  time  in  the  country  ceded  by  the 
present  treaty,  until  general  arrangements  relative  to  the  com 
merce  of  both  nations  may  be  agreed  on,  it  has  been  agreed 
between  the  contracting  parties,  that  the  French  ships  coming 
directly  from  France  or  any  of  her  colonies,  loaded  only  with 
the  produce  or  manufactures  of  France  or  her  said  colonies; 
and  the  ships  of  Spain  coming  directly  from  Spain  or  any  of 
her  colonies,  loaded  only  with  the  produce  or  manufactures  of 
Spain  or  her  colonies,  shall  be  admitted  during  the  space  of 
twelve  years  in  the  ports  of  New  Orleans,  and  in  all  other 
legal  ports  of  entry  within  the  ceded  territory,  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  ships  of  the  United  States  coming  directly  from 


Louisiana  39 

France  or  Spain  or  any  of  their  colonies,  without  being  sub 
ject  to  any  other  or  greater  duty  on  merchandise,  or  other  or 
greater  tonnage  than  those  paid  by  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States. 

During  the  space  of  time  above  mentioned,  no  other  na 
tion  shall  have  a  right  to  the  same  privileges  in  the  ports  of  the 
ceded  territory:  the  twelve  years  shall  commence  three  months 
after  the  exchange  of  ratifications,  if  it  shall  take  place  in 
France,  or  three  months  after  it  shall  have  been  notified  at 
Paris  to  the  French  Government,  if  it  shall  take  place  in  the 
United  States :  it  is,  however,  well  understood  that  the  object 
of  the  above  article  is  to  favor  the  manufactures,  commerce, 
freight,  and  navigation  of  France  and  of  Spain,  so  far  as  re 
lates  to  the  importations  that  the  French  and  Spanish  shall 
make  into  the  said  ports  of  the  United  States,  without  in  any 
sort  affecting  the  regulations  that  the  United  States  may  make 
concerning  the  exportation  of  the  produce  and  merchandise  of 
the  United  States,  or  any  right  they  may  have  to  make  such 

regulations. 

ARTICLE  VIII. 

In  future,  and  for  ever  after  the  expiration  of  the  twelve 
years,  the  ships  of  France  shall  be  treated  upon  the  footing  of 
the  most  favored  nations  in  the  ports  above  mentioned. 

ARTICLE  IX. 

The  particular  convention  signed  this  day  by  the  respect 
ive  ministers,  having  for  its  object  to  provide  for  the  pay 
ment  of  debts  due  to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  by  the 
French  Republic,  prior  to  the  3Oth  of  September,  1800  (8th 
Vendemiaire,  an  9),  is  approved,  and  to  have  its  execution  in 
the  same  manner  as  if  it  had  been  inserted  in  the  present  treaty; 
and  it  shall  be  ratified  in  the  same  form,  and  in  the  same  time, 
so  that  the  one  shall  not  be  ratified  distinct  from  the  other. 

Another  particular  convention,   signed  at  the  same  date 


40  Louisiana 

as  the  present  treaty,  relative  to  the  definite  rule  between  the 
contracting  parties,  is  in  the  like  manner  approved,  and  will  be 
ratified  in  the  same  form,  and  in  the  same  time,  and  jointly. 

ARTICLE  X. 

The  present  treaty  shall  be  ratified  in  good  and  due  form, 
and  the  ratifications  shall  be  exchanged  in  the  space  of  six 
months  after  the  date  of  the  signature  by  the  ministers  pleni 
potentiary,  or  sooner  if  possible. 

In  faith  whereof,  the  respective  plenipotentiaries  have 
signed  these  articles  in  the  French  and  English  languages; 
declaring,  nevertheless,  that  the  present  treaty  was  originally 
agreed  to  in  the  French  language;  and  have  thereunto  put 
their  seals. 

Done  at  Paris,  the  tenth  day  of  Floreal,  in  the  eleventh 
year  of  the  French  Republic,  and  the  3Oth  of  April,  1803. 

ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON. 
JAMES  MONROE. 
BARBE  MARBOIS. 


CONVENTION  BETWEEN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 
AND  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC,  OF  THE  SAME  DATE  WITH 
THE  PRECEDING  TREATY. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  of  America  and  the 
First  Consul  of  the  French  Republic,  in  the  name  of  the  French 
people,  in  consequence  of  the  Treaty  of  Cession  of  Louisiana, 
which  has  been  signed  this  day,  wishing  to  regulate  definitively 
everything  which  has  relation  to  the  said  cession,  have  author 
ized  to  this  effect  the  plenipotentiaries,  that  is  to  say:  the 
President  of  the  United  States  has,  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate  of  the  said  States,  nominated  for  their 
plenipotentiaries,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  minister  plenipotenti 
ary  of  the  United  States,  and  James  Monroe,  minister  pleni 
potentiary  and  envoy  extraordinary  of  the  said  United  States, 
near  the  Government  of  the  French  Republic;  and  the  First 


Louisiana  41 

Consul  of  the  French  Republic,  in  the  name  of  the  French 
people,  has  named  as  plenipotentiary  of  the  said  Republic,  the 
French  citizen,  Barbe  Marbois,  who,  in  virtue  of  their  full 
powers,  which  have  been  exchanged  this  day,  have  agreed  to 
the  following  articles : 

ARTICLE   I. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  engages  to  pay  to 
the  French  Government,  in  the  manner  specified  in  the  follow 
ing  articles,  the  sum  of  sixty  millions  of  francs,  independent 
of  the  sum  which  shall  be  fixed  by  another  convention  for  the 
payment  of  debts  due  by  France  to  citizens  of  the  United 

States. 

ARTICLE   II. 

For  the  payment  of  sixty  millions  of  francs,  mentioned  in 
the  preceding  article,  the  United  States  shall  create  a  stock 
of  eleven  millions  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
bearing  an  interest  of  six  per  cent,  per  annum,  payable  half 
yearly  in  London,  Amsterdam,  or  Paris,  amounting  by  the 
half  year  to  three  hundred  and  thirty-seven  thousand  five  hun 
dred  dollars,  according  to  the  proportions  which  shall  be  de 
termined  by  the  French  Government,  to  be  paid  at  either  place , 
the  principal  of  the  said  stock  to  be  reimbursed  at  the  treasury 
of  the  United  States,  in  annual  payments  of  not  less  than  three 
millions  of  dollars  each ;  of  which  the  first  payment  shall  com 
mence  fifteen  years  after  the  date  of  the  exchange  of  ratifica 
tions;  this  stock  shall  be  transferred  to  the  Government  of 
France,  or  to  such  person  or  persons  as  shall  be  authorized 
to  receive  it,  in  three  months  at  most  after  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  this  treaty,  and  after  Louisiana  shall  be  taken 
possession  of  in  the  name  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States. 

It  is  further  agreed,  that  if  the  French  Government  should 
be  desirous  of  disposing  of  the  said  stock  to  receive  the  said 


4:2  Louisiana 

capital  in  Europe,  at  shorter  terms,  that  its  measures  for  that 
purpose  shall  be  taken  so  as  to  favour,  in  the  greatest  degree 
possible,  the  credit  of  the  United  States,  and  to  raise  to  the 
highest  price  the  said  stock. 

ARTICLE  III. 

It  is  agreed  that  the  dollar  of  the  United  States,  specified 
in  the  present  convention,  shall  be  fixed  at  five  francs  3333- 
roooo,  or  five  livres  eight  sous  tournois.  The  present  con 
vention  shall  be  ratified  in  good  and  due  form,  and  the  ratifica 
tions  shall  be  exchanged  in  the  space  of  six  months,  to  date 
from  this  day,  or  sooner  if  possible. 

In  faith  of  which  the  respective  plenipotentiaries  have 
signed  the  above  articles  both  in  the  French  and  English  lan 
guages  ;  declaring,  nevertheless,  that  the  present  treaty  has 
been  originally  agreed  on  and  written  in  the  French  language; 
to  which  they  have  hereunto  affixed  their  seals. 

Done  at  Paris,  the  tenth  of  Floreal,  eleventh  year  of  the 
French  Republic  (3Oth  April,  1803). 

ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON  (L.  S.). 
JAMES  MONROE  (L.  S.). 
BARBF;  MARBOIS  (L.  S.). 


CONVENTION  BETWEEN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 
AND  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC,  ALSO  OF  THE  SAME  DATE 
WITH  THE  LOUISIANA  TREATY. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  of  America  and  the 
First  Consul  of  the  French  people,  having  by  a  treaty  of  this 
date  terminated  all  difficulties  relative  to  Louisiana,  and  estab 
lished  on  a  solid  foundation  the  friendship  which  unites  the 
two  nations,  and  being  desirous,  in  compliance  with  the  sec 
ond  and  fifth  articles  of  the  convention  of  the  8th  Vendemiairc, 
ninth  year  of  the  French  Republic  (3Oth  September,  1800), 
to  secure  .the  payment  of  the  sum  due  by  France  to  the  citizens 


Louisiana  43 

of  the  United  States,  have  respectively  nominated  as  pleni 
potentiaries,  that  is  to  say :  the  President  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate, 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  minister  plenipotentiary  and  envoy  ex 
traordinary  of  the  said  States,  near  the  Government  of  the 
French  Republic,  and  the  First  Consul,  in  the  name  of  the 
French  people,  the  French  citizen  Barbe  Marbois,  minister 
of  the  public  treasury;  who,  after  having  exchanged  their  full 
powers,  have  agreed  to  the  following  articles : 

ARTICLE   I. 

The  debts  due  by  France  to  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  contracted  before  the  8th  Vendemiaire,  ninth  year  of 
the  French  Republic  (3Oth  September,  1800),  shall  be  paid 
according  to  the  following  regulations,  with  interest  at  six 
per  cent.,  to  commence  from  the  period  when  the  accounts  and 
vouchers  were  presented  to  the  French  government. 

ARTICLE   II. 

The  debts  provided  for  by  the  preceding  article  are  those 
whose  result  is  comprised  in  the  conjectural  note  annexed  to 
the  present  convention,  and  which,  with  the  interest,  cannot 
exceed  the  sum  of  twenty  millions  of  francs.  The  claims  com 
prised  in  the  said  note,  which  fall  within  the  exceptions  of  the 
following  articles,  shall  not  be  admitted  to  the  benefit  of  this 

provision. 

ARTICLE  III. 

The  principal  and  interests  of  the  said  debts  shall  be  dis 
charged  by  the  United  States  by  orders  drawn  by  their  min 
isters  plenipotentiary  on  their  treasury;  these  orders  shall  be 
payable  sixty  days  after  the  exchange  of  the  ratifications  of 
the  treaty  and  the  conventions  signed  this  day,  and  after  pos 
session  shall  be  given  of  Louisiana  by  the  commissioners  of 
France  to  those  of  the  United  States. 


44  Louisiana 

ARTICLE  IV. 

It  is  expressly  agreed  that  the  preceding  articles  shall 
comprehend  no  debts  but  such  as  are  due  to  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  who  have  been  and  are  yet  creditors  of  France 
for  supplies,  embargoes,  and  for  prizes  made  at  sea,  in  which 
the  appeal  has  been  properly  lodged  within  the  time  men 
tioned  in  the  said  convention  of  the  8th  Vendemiaire,  ninth 
year  (3Oth  September,  1800). 

ARTICLE  V. 

The  preceding  articles  shall  apply  only,  first,  to  captures 
of  which  the  council  of  prizes  shall  have  ordered  restitution ; 
it  being  well  understood  that  the  claimant  cannot  have  recourse 
to  the  United  States  otherwise  than  he  might  have  had  to 
the  Government  of  the  French  Republic,  and  only  in  case  of 
the  insufficiency  of  the  captors ;  second,  the  debts  mentioned 
in  the  said  fifth  article  of  the  convention,  contracted  before 
the  8th  Vendemiaire,  an  9  (3Oth  September,  1800),  the  pay 
ment  of  which  has  been  heretofore  claimed  of  the  actual  gov 
ernment  of  France,  and  for  which  the  creditors  have  a  right 
to  the  protection  of  the  United  States;  the  said  fifth  article 
does  not  comprehend  prizes  whose  condemnation  has  been  or 
shall  be  confirmed.  It  is  the  express  intention  of  the  contract 
ing  parties  not  to  extend  the  benefit  of  the  present  conven 
tion  to  reclamations  of  American  citizens  who  shall  have  estab 
lished  houses  of  commerce  in  France,  England  or  other  coun 
tries  than  the  United  States,  in  partnership  with  foreigners, 
and  who  by  that  reason  and  the  nature  of  their  commerce 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  domiciliated  in  the  places  where  such 
houses  exist.  All  agreements  and  bargains  concerning  mer 
chandise  which  shall  not  be  the  property  of  American  citizens 
are  equally  excepted  from  the  benefit  of  the  said  convention, 
saving,  however,  to  such  persons  their  claims  in  like  manner 
as  if  this  treaty  had  not  been  made. 


Louisiana  45 

ARTICLE  VI. 

And  that  the  different  questions  which  may  arise  under 
the  preceding  article  may  be  fairly  investigated  the  Ministers 
Plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States  shall  name  three  persons, 
who  shall  act  from  the  present  and  provisionally,  and  who 
shall  have  full  power  to  examine,  without  removing  the  docu 
ments,  all  the  accounts  of  the  different  claims  already  liqui 
dated  by  the  bureau  established  for  this  purpose  by  the  French 
Republic ;  and  to  ascertain  whether  they  belong  to  the  classes 
designated  by  the  present  convention  and  the  principles  estab 
lished  in  it,  or  if  they  are  not  in  one  of  its  exceptions,  and  on 
their  certificate  declaring  that  the  debt  is  due  to-  an  American 
citizen  or  his  representative,  and  that  it  existed  before  the 
8th  Vendemiaire,  ninth  year  (3Oth  September,  1800),  the 
creditor  shall  be  entitled  to  an  order  on  the  treasury  of  the 
United  States  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the  third  article. 

ARTICLE  VII. 

The  same  ag'ents  shall  likewise  have  power,  without  re 
moving  the  documents,  to  examine  the  claims  which  are  pre 
pared  for  verification  and  to*  certify  those  which  oug'ht  to 
be  admitted  by  uniting  the  necessary  qualifications,  and  not 
being"  comprised  in  the  exceptions  contained  in  the  present 
convention. 

ARTICLE  VIII. 

The  same  agents  shall  likewise  examine  the  claims  which 
are  not  prepared  for  liquidation  and  certify  in  writing  those 
which,  in  their  judgments,  ought  to  be  admitted  to  liquida 
tion. 

ARTICLE  IX. 

In  proportion  as  the  debts  mentioned  in  these  articles 
shall  be  admitted,  they  shall  be  discharged  with  interest  at  6 
per  cent  by  the  treasury  of  the  United  States. 


46  Louisiana 

ARTICLE  X. 

And  that  no  debt  which  shall  not  have  the  qualifications 
above  mentioned,  and  that  no  unjust  or  exorbitant  demand 
may  be  admitted,  the  commercial  agent  of  the  United  States 
at  Paris,  or  such  other  agent  as  the  Minister  Plenipotentiary 
of  the  United  States  shall  think  proper  to  nominate,  shall 
assist  at  the  operations  of  the  bureau  and  co-operate  in  the 
examination  of  the  claims ;  and  if  this  agent  shall  be  of  opinion 
that  any  debt  is  not  completely  proved,  or  if  he  shall  judg'e 
that  it  is  not  comprised  in  the  principles  of  the  fifth  Article 
above  mentioned ;  and  if,  notwithstanding  his  opinion,  the 
bureau  established  by  the  French  Government  should  think 
that  it  ought  to  be  liquidated,  he  shall  transmit  his  observa 
tions  to  the  board  established  by  the  United  States,  who,  with 
out  removing  the  documents,  shall  make  a  complete  examina 
tion  of  the  debt  and  vouchers  which  support  it  and  report  the 
result  to  the  Minister  of  the  United  States.  The  Minister  of 
die  United  States  shall  transmit  his  observations,  in  all  such 
cases,  to  the  Minister  of  the  Treasury  of  the  French  Republic, 
on  whose  report  the  French  Government  shall  decide  definitive 
ly  in  every  case. 

The  rejection  of  any  claim  shall  have  no  other  effect 
than  to  exempt  the  United  States  from  the  payment  of  it,  the 
French  Government  reserving  to  itself  the  right  to  decide 
definitively  on  such  claim  so  far  as  it  concerns  itself. 

ARTICLE  XI. 

Every  necessary  decision  shall  be  made  in  the  course  of  a 
year,  to  commence  from  the  exchange  of  ratifications,  and  no 
reclamation  shall  be  admitted  afterwards. 

ARTICLE  XII. 

In  case  of  claims  for  debts  contracted  by  the  Govern 
ment  of  France  with  citizens  of  the  United  States  since  the 


Louisiana  47 

8th  Vendemiaire,  ninth  year  (3Oth  September,  1800),  not  be 
ing  comprised  in  this  convention,  they  may  be  pursued,  and  the 
payment  demanded  in  the  same  manner  as  if  it  had  not  been 

made. 

ARTICLE  XIII. 

The  present  convention  shall  be  ratified  in  good  and  due 
form,  and  the  ratifications  shall  be  exchanged  in  six  months 
from  the  date  of  the  signature  of  the  Ministers  Plenipotentiary, 
or  sooner  if  possible. 

In  faith  of  which,  the  respective  Ministers  Plenipotentiary 
have  signed  the  above  articles,  both  in  the  French  and  English 
languages,  declaring,  nevertheless,  that  the  present  treaty  had 
been  originally  agreed  on  and  written  in  the  French  language, 
to  which  they  have  hereunto  affixed  their  seals. 

Done  at  Paris  the  loth  day  of  Floreal,  eleventh  year  of  the 
French  Republic  (3Oth  April,  1803). 

ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON  (L.  S.). 
JAMES  MONROE  (L.  S.). 
BARBE  MARBOIS  (L.  S.). 


APPENDIX 


GIVING    A    BRIEF    HISTORY    OF    OREGON    AND 

ACQUISITIONS    OF    TERRITORY    TO 

THE    UNITED    STATES 


WITH  A  MAP 


OREGON 


American  ownership  of  Oregon  is  the  most  important  re 
sult  that  came  from  the  cession  of  Louisiana  to  the  United 
States,  and  the  history  of  how  this  result  came  about  forms 
an  interesting  sequel  to  the  record  of  that  cession.  Three 
nations  have  laid  claim  to  the  Oregon  country,  as  it  was  first 
called,  which  embraced  the  territory  along  the  Pacific  Coast 
from  the  forty-second  parallel  northward  to  the  parallel  of  54° 
40';  being  the  southern  limits  of  the  Russian  possessions, 
which  that  power  owned  by  virtue  of  priority  of  discovery  by 
Behring,  the  celebrated  Russian  navigator,  after  whom  Behring 
Straits  were  named.  Spain  claimed  this  country  on  the 
ground  that  Juan  de  Fuca,  in  1592,  discovered  and  entered  the 
straits  which  bear  his  name,  and  that  Bruno  Heceta  sailed 
along  this  coast  in  1775.  The  English  claims  rested  on  the 
voyages  of  Meares  in  1786,  and  later,  on  those  of  Vancouver 
in  1789,  along  the  coasts  and  into  the  Straits  of  Fuca.  The 
claims  of  the  United  States,  which  came  in  last,  transcended 
all  these  in  the  principles  of  national  rights,  especially  as  to 
priority  of  interior  exploration  as  against  England. 

At  St.  Petersburg,  April  5,  1824,  Russia  having  relin 
quished  any  right  which  might  accrue  to  her  south  of  54°  40', 
the  question  of  ownership  to  the  coast  south  of  that  parallel 
was  left  open  to  negotiation  to  the  other  powers  just  named. 

After  Spain,  in  1819,  had  sold  Florida  and  all  her  claims 
on  the  Pacific  to  the  United  States,  as  told  in  previous  pages 
of  this  work,  then  came  a  contest  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  for  this  immense  empire,  slumbering  in  ob 
scurity,  inhabited  by  savage  tribes  of  Indians,  some  of  them 
hitherto  unknown  to  civilization.  The  claims  of  the  United 


52  Oregon 

Slates  rested,  first,  on  the  explorations  of  Robert  Gray,  who 
sailed  from  Boston  on  September  30,  1787,  with  two  vessels, 
the  "Washington"  and  the  "Columbia,"  under  the  patronage 
of  J.  Barrell,  S.  Brown,  C.  Bulfinch,  J.  Barley,  C.  Hatch  and 
J.  M.  Pintard.  Their  destination  was  the  northwest  coast  of 
America,  by  doubling  Cape  Horn.  The  object  of  the  expedi 
tion  was  to  establish  trade  relations,  which  it  did  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  the  proprietors;  but  these  objects  were  insig 
nificant  compared  to  the  national  character  destined  to  grow 
out  of  it.  The  expedition  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Co 
lumbia  River  in  1792,  up  which  stream  Captain  Gray  with 
difficulty  sailed  over  the  sandbar  at  its  mouth  and  made  his 
way  along  its  meanders  till  the  snowcapped  peak  of  Mount 
Hood  became  visible.  He  named  this  river  the  "Columbia," 
after  the  vessel  which  he  had  the  honor  of  commanding  in  the 
service  of  its  proprietors;  but  in  the  sublimer  service  of 
America,  as  history  shows  it  to  have  been.  He  returned  to 
Boston  by  a  western  passage  around  the  world.  No  Amer 
ican  vessel  had  circumnavigated  the  world  before,  and  to  him 
belongs  the  distinguished  honor  of  first  carrying-  the  stars  and 
stripes  on  such  a  voyage. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  when  Secretary  of  State  under  Wash 
ington,  in  1792,  had  proposed  to  send  an  expedition  up  the 
Missouri  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  fur  trade  with  the 
Indians;  and  when  he  became  President  of  the  United  States, 
even  before  Louisiana  had  been  purchased,  he  took  measures 
to  send  an  exploring  expedition  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  For  this 
purpose  the  services  of  Meriwether  Lewis,  a  captain  in  the 
regular  army,  and  afterward  private  secretary  to  President 
Jefferson,  and  Capt.  William  Clark,  were  secured  by  Jeffer 
son  to  explore  the  Missouri  River  to  its  sources,  thence  to  cross 
the  divide  of  its  watershed  and  find  some  stream  that  led  to 
the  Pacific.  They  had  a  command  of  forty-four  men,  a  few 


Oregon  53 

of  whom  were  to  accompany  the  expedition  no  farther  than 
the  headwaters  of  the  Missouri.  A  few  days  after  President 
Jefferson  had  given  Captain  Lewis  his  instructions  as  com 
mander  of  the  expedition  news  of  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty 
for  the  cession  of  Louisiana  reached  the  United  States,  and 
without  further  delay  the  expedition  started.  Their  route 
lay  up  the  Missouri  river  as  far  as  they  could  go  with  their 
boats,  thence  across  the  divide  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Co 
lumbia  River  with  horses  purchased  from  the  Indians.  From 
the  headwaters  of  boat  navigation  on  the  Columbia  River  they 
navigated  this  stream  to  its  mouth,  arriving  at  Cape  Disap 
pointment,  situated  on  its  north  bank,  November  15,  1805, 
where  they  remained  till  March  26,  1806.  Previous  to  their 
departure  from  St.  Louis,  President  Jefferson  had  given  Lewis 
and  Clark  authority  to  purchase  necessary  supplies  for  the  re 
turn  of  the  expedition,  either  across  the  country  or  for  passage 
in  vessel  around  Cape  Horn  for  the  whole  company ;  but,  thanks 
to  the  good  management  of  the  commanders  of  the  expedition, 
there  was  no  necessity  for  using  this  authority,  and  they 
commenced  their  return  up  the  Columbia  River  to  its  sources ; 
thence  across  the  divide  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Missouri 
River;  thence  down  that  stream  to  St.  Louis,  arriving  there 
September  23  same  year,  their  return  thus  having  been  by  the 
same  route  on  which  they  had  advanced  into  the  unknown 
two  years  before. 

In  1811  John  Jacob  Astor  established  a  fort,  which  he 
named  Astoria,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Columbia  River,  ten 
miles  above  its  mouth.  This  fort  was  captured  by  the  British 
and  named  Fort  George  during  the  War  of  1812,  but  was 
restored  at  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  in  1814,  after  which  it  became 
a  permanent  point  of  American  occupation  under  its  original 
name,  and  as  such  an  evidence  of  American  ownership. 


54  Oregon 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  on  international  law,  the 
binding  force  of  which  is  a  resort  to  arms  if  diplomacy  fails ; 
there  is  an  unwritten  law  of  nations  that  priority  of  discovery, 
exploration  and  occupation  is  an  acknowledged  national  title 
to  lands  thus  discovered,  explored  and  occupied.  On  this 
basis  rested  the  title  to  the  Pacific  Coast  between  the  parallel 
of  42°  on  the  south  to  the  parallel  54°  40'  on  the  north.  Both 
England  and  America  based  their  claims  on  this  priority,  as 
above  stated,  controlling  which  was  a  boundary  line  between 
the  two  nations  on  the  north,  which  was  established  in  a  pre 
liminary  way  when  Astoria  was  restored  to  the  Americans  by 
the  treaty  of  Ghent. 

At  this  time  the  forty-ninth  parallel  was  first  mentioned 
between  the  American  and  British  commissioners,  but  at  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht,  negotiated  in  1713,  between  Great  Britain 
on  one  side  and  Spain  and  France  on  the  other,  the  forty-ninth 
parallel  was  assumed  to  be  the  dividing  line  between  the  French 
Province  of  Louisiana  and  the  British  possessions  to<  the  north. 
Some  historians  have  denied  the  binding  force  of  that  treaty 
in  establishing  the  line  of  the  forty-ninth  parallel,  but  that 
this  demarkation  began  here  no  one  who  studies  the  intricate 
meshes  of  this  question  can  doubt.  In  the  debates  at  the  rati 
fication  in  the  British  House  of  Commons  on  the  Ashburton 
treaty  mention  was  made  of  a  map  which  had  belonged  to  the 
late  King  George  III,  made  by  Mr.  Faden,  the  King's  geogra 
pher,  after  the  peace  of  1783.  This  map  had  hung  in  the 
King's  library  during  his  lifetime,  and  subsequently  in  the 
foreign  office;  but  it  had  disappeared  about  the  time  of  the 
Ashburton  treaty.  On  it  was  written,  in  the  handwriting  of 
King  George  III,  'This  is  Oswald's  line,"  referring  to  a  red 
line  on  the  forty-ninth  parallel,  immediately  above  these 
words.  Mr.  Richard  Oswald  was  one  of  the  British  Commis 
sioners  who  negotiated  the  provisional  treaty  of  peace  of  1782 
between  England  and  America.  In  1843  Sir  Robert  Peel  and 


Oregon  55 

Lord  Aberdeen  showed  this  map  to  Edward  Everett,  United 
States  Minister  to  the  Court  of  St.  James.  On  it  was  the 
red  line  as  fixed  at  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713. 

Mr.  Rush  and  Mr.  Gallatin  acted  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States  and  Mr.  Goulburn  and  Mr.  Robinson  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain  at  the  first  English  and  American  negotiations 
on  the  forty-ninth  parallel.  The  American  plenipotentiaries 
proposed  that  a  line  should  be  drawn  from  the  northwestern 
extremity  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  thence  to  the  forty-ninth 
parallel,  which  might  be  to  the  north  or  the  south  of  that  point, 
and  that  a  dividing  line  between  the  two  nations  should  be 
on  this  parallel  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Subsequently,  in  run 
ning  a  line  from  this  point  on  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the 
forty-ninth  parallel,  it  was  found  that  this  parallel  was  about 
a  degree  to  the  southward ;  hence  that  tangent  point  running 
into  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  on  all  accurate  maps  of  the  United 
States  showing  its  northern  boundary.  This  line  ran  sub 
stantially  along  the  ridge  dividing  the  northern  watershed  from 
the  Mississippi  watershed.  It  was  a  natural  boundary,  never 
questioned  by  either  nation,  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

When  the  issue  as  to  the  ultimate  ownership  of  Oregon 
became  a  matter  of  discussion  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States,  certain  principles  in  our  political  and  financial 
statecraft  hinged  upon  these  final  negotiations. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Company  had  been  chartered  by  King 
Charles  II  in  1669,  whose  limits  on  the  south  had  never  been 
defined ;  but  whose  ambitions  in  that  direction  were  in  rivalry 
not  only  with  the  American  Fur  Company,  but  with  American 
settlements  as  they  tended  westwardly.  This  opulent  company 
had  a  strong  influence  with  the  British  Cabinet ;  on  the  other 
side,  American  emigrants  to  this  country  had  an  equally 
strong  influence  with  the  American  Congress.  Here  was  a 
collision  of  interests  that  must  be  settled  by  diplomacy  to  pre- 


56  Oregon 

vent  violence  between  the  emigrants  of  the  two  respective  coun 
tries.  According  to  Gray's  History  of  Oregon  some  emigrants 
from  America  had  already  been  killed  by  agents  from  the  Hud 
son  Bay  Company.  Under  this  strain  the  two  Governments 
concluded  a  treaty  October  20,  1818,  agreeing  that  emigrants 
from  each  country  should  be  allowed  to  settle  in  the  disputed 
territory  for  the  space  of  ten  years.  Pending  this  joint  occu 
pation,  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  through  their  advantages 
of  wealth  and  a  large  force  of  fur  hunters,  gained  almost  com 
plete  possession  of  the  disputed  territory  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  American  fur  hunters  and  trappers.  The  first  object  at 
which  they  aimed  was  to  convince  the  outside  world,  and  es 
pecially  the  people  of  the  United  States,  that  this  country 
was  useless  for  agricultural  purposes,  a  task  which  continued 
to  grow  more  and  more  hopeless  in  proportion  as  American 
settlers  emigrated  to  the  country. 

Mr.  Rush,  when  Minister  to  England,  in  1824,  received  a 
proposition  from  the  British  Government  that  the  line  of  sepa 
ration  between  the  two  Governments  should  be  on  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel,  from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  westward  to  the 
northeasternmost  branch  of  the  Columbia;  thence  down  that 
river  to  the  sea,  substantially  the  same  line  as  had  been  con 
sidered  by  Mr.  Rush  and  the  British  Commissioners  in  1814, 
but  not  agreed  to.  In  reply  to  this  proposition  the  Americans 
(demanded  the  line  of  the  forty-ninth  parallel  through  to  the 
Pacific  Coast.  Mr.  Gallatin,  Plenipotentiary  to  the  British 
Court,  under  instructions  from  his  Government,  did  not  accept 
this  proposition,  although  the  British  declared  they  would  not 
settle  the  boundary  on  any  other  line.  Under  these  circum 
stances,  after  much  diplomatic  caviling  on  the  part  of  the 
British,  both  nations,  by  convention,  August  6,  1827,  agreed 
to  extend  the  terms  of  the  joint  occupation  indefinitely,  with  a 
proviso  that  either  nation  should  be  at  liberty  to  abrogate  the 


Oregon  57 

agreement  by  giving  one  year's  notice.  As  there  was  at  this 
time  an  increasing  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  American 
people  to  emigrate  to  Oregon  for  the  purpose  of  permanent 
settlement,  this  temporary  compromise  of  the  issue  was  con 
sidered  to  be  prudential  and  wise,  as  the  sequel  proved.  The 
Americans,  through  their  Minister,  Mr.  Rush,  had  made  no 
claim  north  of  the  parallel  49°,  which  line  had  already  been 
conceded  by  the  British.  The  Plenipotentiary  from  the  United 
States,  Mr.  Gallatin,  had  substantially  acceded  to  this  line, 
but  denied  the  claim  of  the  British  of  the  Columbia  River  as 
the  boundary  from  its  termination  to  the  sea. 

And  now  came  the  real  tug  of  war,  the  issue  being  divided 
in  responsibility  between  the  people  and  the  Government  on  the 
American  side,  while  on  the  British  side  the  responsibility  was 
shared  practically  between  the  Court  of  St.  James  and  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company.  These  conditions  augmented  the  in 
terest  felt  by  each  nation,  and  from  this  time  onward  the 
Americans  had  the  advantage,  inasmuch  as  the  strong  hold 
they  had  on  the  territorial  question  grew  out  of  the  desire  of 
the  American  pioneer  to  advance  into  the  western  wilds  for 
the  purpose  of  farming,  while  the  Hudson  Bay  Company's 
strongest  incentive  was  to  reap  a  harvest  of  furs,  with  but  a 
remote  prospect  tending  toward  agricultural  development. 
Political  conditions,  the  missionary  spirit  in  harmony  with 
the  pioneer  spirit,  had  deep  root  in  the  destiny  of  Oregon. 
Greenhow,  in  his  "History  of  Oregon,"  page  361,  says:  "In 
1835  Mr.  Parker,  a  Presbyterian  minister  from  Ithaca,  N.  Y., 
proceeded  by  way  of  the  Platte  and  the  South  Pass  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia,  and  thence  returned  to  the  United  States ;  and 
from  his  reports  Messrs.  Spalding,  Gray  and  Whitman  were 
sent  by  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  to  prosecute 
the  objects  of  that  society  in  the  Oregon  regions.  Other 
missionaries,  with  their  families  and  friends,  soon  followed 


58  Oregon 

them  and  formed  settlements  at  various  points,  in  all  of  which 
schools  for  the  education  of  the  natives  were  opened;  and  a 
printing  press  was  erected  at  Walla  Walla,  on  which  were 
struck  off  the  first  sheets  ever  printed  west  of  the  Upper  Mis 
souri  north  of  Mexico.  Meantime  Congress  continued  to  dis 
cuss  the  Oregon  question,  especially  as  to  the  necessity  of  abro 
gating  the  treaty  of  joint  occupation.  From  this  discussion 
those  wishing  to  emigrate  to  Oregon  felt  confident  of  the  pro 
tection  of  their  Government ;  and  under  this  assurance  nearly 
1,000  men,  women  and  children  formed  a  caravan,  consisting 
of  about  200  wagons  and  a  large  number  of  horses  and  cattle, 
at  Westport,  Mo.,  June,  1843.  From  this  point  they  started 
up  the  Platte  River,  thence  through  the  South  Pass  across  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  their  destination  being  the  Willamet  Valley, 
where  they  arrived  with  slight  loss  the  following  October.'' 

April  3,  1842,  Lord  Ashburton  arrived  at  Washington 
as  Plenipotentiary  from  Great  Britain  to  settle  the  boundary 
line  between  British  America  and  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Webster,  Secretary  of  State,  acted  in  behalf  of  the  United 
States  on  this  question.  Although  it  was  generally  expected 
by  the  people  of  the  United  States  that  they  were  to  define  the 
boundary  westward  to  the  Pacific,  they  did  nothing  more 
than  to  establish  a  boundary  between  the  two  countries,  start 
ing  from  where  the  forty-ninth  parallel  intersected  the  Lake 
of  the  Woods,  thence  southeastwardly  by  the  waters  connect 
ing  this  lake  with  Lake  Superior,  thence  eastwardly  through 
the  center  of  the  entire  chain  of  lakes  and  their  connections 
till  the  source  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River  was  reached,  thence 
down  that  stream  to  where  it  intersects  the  northern  line  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  From  this  point  the  present  northern 
boundaries  of  New  York,  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire  had 
already  been  established ;  but  the  boundary  between  Maine  and 
New  Brunswick,  in  Canada,  which  had  remained  in  doubt  ever 


Oregon  59 

since  the  treaty  of  1783,  was  now  defined  by  the  Ashburton- 
Webster  treaty,  made  at  Washington  August  9,  1842,  and  rati 
fied  by  Great  Britain  October  13,  and  proclaimed  at  Washing 
ton  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  November  10,  same 
year. 

Congress  now  no  longer  hesitated  to  give  the  required 
year's  notice  of  abrogation  of  the  treaty  of  1827,  which  was 
done  April  27,  1846,  as  a  necessary  link  in  the  chain  of  ne 
gotiations.  The  American  people  were  always  sensitive  on 
great  national  issues.  The  purchase  of  Louisiana  had  whetted 
their  appetite  for  more  territory  to  the  West,*  and  it  cannot  be 
said  that  this  appetite  was  morbid,  as  it  had  international  law 
as  well  as  justice  back  of  it.  The  time  had  now  come  when 
the  arts  of  diplomacy  were  exhausted.  No  more  evidence 
could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  question,  and  it  must  be 
apparent  to  every  judicial  mind  that  the  British  had  none  on 
which  to  base  a  claim  for  territory  south  of  the  forty-ninth 
parallel.  Mr.  Polk,  then  President  of  the  United  States,  had 
demanded  54°  40'  as  the  line.  The  English  had  never  de 
manded  anything  south  of  the  Columbia  River.  Negotiations 
had  progressed  by  piecemeal,  and  now  seemed  to  culminate 
on  the  forty-ninth  parallel.  On  the  part  of  America  the 
line  of  54°  40'  was  relinquished  by  the  advice  of  Mr.  Benton, 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  Mr.  Webster,  each  of  whom  took  strong 
ground  in  favor  of  negotiation  to  prevent  war.  Although  Mr. 
Polk  agreed  to  this  concession,  it  was  done  with  apparent 
reluctance.  It  was  an  abandonment  of  the  ground  on  which 
the  presidential  canvass  that  had  elected  him  had  been  con- 


*To  show  the  English  opinion  at  that  time  on  the  Oregon  question, 
it  is  pertinent  to  quote  from  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  July,  1843,  which 
says-  "However  the  political  questions  between  England  and  America  as 
to  the  ownership  of  Oregon  may  be  decided,  Oregon  will  never  be  colonized 
overland  from  the  United  States.  *  *  *  The  world  must  assume  a  new 
face  before  the  American  wagons  make  plain  the  road  to  the  Columbia, 
as  they  have  done  to  the  Ohio.  *  *  *  Whoever,  therefore,  is  to  be  the 
future  owner  of  Oregon,  its  people  will  come  from  Europe. 


60  Oregon 

ducted.  It  was  a  proof  that  partisan  ties  must  give  way  to 
patriotism ;  for,  when  we  examine  the  evidence  on  both  sides, 
it  must  be  confessed  that  the  claims  of  America  north  of  the 
forty-ninth  parallel  were  not  superior  to  those  of  Great  Britain, 
and  perhaps  not  equal.  In  the  settlement  of  this  question, 
England  having  yielded  up  her  claim  of  the  Columbia  River, 
the  issue  between  the  two  nations  had  been  honorably  negoti 
ated  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  representative  men  of  each  nation. 
The  final  treaty  was  executed  at  Washington,  June  15,  1846. 
No  former  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  any  foreign 
power  had  ever  been  negotiated  under  such  a  crucial  test  as  to 
international  rights  as  this,  and  none  since  the  days  of  the 
American  Revolution,  in  which  the  people  had  taken  so  much 
interest. 

James  Buchanan  acted  on  the  part  of  the  United  States 
and  Richard  Pakenham  on  the  part  of  England.  It  w^as  rati 
fied  at  London,  July  17,  1846,  and  officially  proclaimed  at 
Washington,  August  5,  1846. 

THE   TREATY. 

"The  United  States  of  America  and  Her  Majesty  the 
Queen  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
deeming  it  to  be  desirable  for  the  future  welfare  of  both  coun 
tries,  that  the  state  of  doubt  and  uncertainty  which  has  hither 
to  prevailed  respecting  the  sovereignty  and  government  of  the 
territory  on  the  northwest  coast  of  America  lying  westward  of 
the  Rocky  or  Stony  Mountains,  should  be  finally  terminated 
by  an  amicable  compromise  of  the  rights  mutually  asserted  by 
the  two  parties  over  said  territory,  have  respectively  named 
plenipotentiaries  to  treat  and  agree  concerning  the  terms  of 
such  settlement;  that  is  to  say,  the  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America  has,  on  his  part,  furnished  with  full  powers 
James  Buchanan,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  and 


Oregon  61 

Her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Brit 
ain  and  Ireland  has,  on  her  part,  appointed  Right  Honorable 
Richard  Pakenham,  a  member  of  Her  Majesty's  most  honor 
able  Privy  Council,  and  Her  Majesty's  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  the  United  States,  who  after 
having  communicated  to  each  other  their  respective  full  powers, 
framed  in  good  and  due  form,  have  agreed  upon  and  con 
cluded  the  following  articles : 

ARTICLE  I. 

"From  the  point  on  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north  lati 
tude,  where  the  boundary  laid  down  in  existing  treaties  and 
conventions  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  ter 
minates,  the  line  of  boundary  between  the  territories  of  Her 
Britannic  Majesty  and  those  of  the  United  States  shall  be  con 
tinued  westward  along  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north  latitude 
to  the  middle  of  the  channel  which  separates  the  continent 
from  Vancouver's  Island,  and  thence  southerly  through  the 
middle  of  said  channel  and  of  Fuca  Straits  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean;  provided,  however,  that  the  navigation  of  the  said 
channel  and  straits  south  of  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north 
latitude  remain  free  and  open  to  both  parties. 

ARTICLE  II. 

"From  the  point  at  which  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of 
north  latitude  shall  be  found  to  intersect  the  Great  Northern 
branch  of  the  Columbia  River  the  navigation  of  the  said 
branch  shall  be  free  and  open  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
and  to  all  British  subjects  trading  with  the  same,  to  the  point 
where  the  said  branch  meets  the  main  stream  of  the  Columbia, 
and  thence  down  the  said  main  stream  to  the  ocean,  with  free 
access  into  and  through  the  said  river  or  rivers ;  it  being  under 
stood  that  all  the  usual  portages  along  the  line  thus  described 
shall  in  like  manner  be  free  and  open.  In  navigating  the  said 
river  or  rivers  British  subjects,  with  their  goods  and  produce. 


62  Oregon 

shall  he  treated  on  the  same  footing  as  citizens  of  the  United 
States;  it  being,  however,  always  understood  that  nothing  in 
this  article  shall  be  construed  as  preventing,  or  intended  to 
prevent,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  from  making 
any  regulations  respecting  the  navigation  of  the  said  river  or 
rivers  not  inconsistent  with  the  present  treaty. 

ARTICLE  III. 

"In  the  future  appropriations  of  the  territory  south  of  the 
forty-ninth  parallel  of  north  latitude,  as  provided  in  the  first 
article  of  this  treaty,  the  possessory  rights  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  and  of  all  British  subjects  who  may  be  already 
in  the  occupation  of  land  or  other  property  lawfully  acquired 
within  the  said  territory,  shall  be  respected. 

ARTICLE  IV. 

"The  farms,  lands  and  other  property  of  every  description 
belonging  to  the  Puget's  Sound  Agricultural  Co.,  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Columbia  River,  shall  be  confirmed  to  the  said  com 
pany.  In  case,  however,  the  situation  of  those  farms  and 
lands  should  be  considered  by  the  United  States  to  be  of  public 
and  political  importance,  and  the  United  States  Government 
should  signify  a  desire  to  obtain  possession  of  the  whole,  or 
any  part  thereof,  the  property  so  required  shall  be  transferred 
to  the  said  Government  at  a  proper  valuation,  to  be  agreed 
upon  between  the  parties. 

ARTICLE  V. 

"The  present  treaty  shall  be  ratified  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate  thereof,  and  by  Her  Britannic  Majesty;  arid  the  ratifi 
cations  shall  be  exchanged  at  London  at  the  expiration  of  six 
months  from  the  date  hereof,  or  sooner  if  possible. 

"In  witness  thereof,  the  respective  plenipotentiaries  have 
signed  the  same,  and  have  affixed  thereto  the  seals  of  their 
arms. 


Oregon  63 

"Done  at  Washington,  the  fifteenth  day  of  June,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-six. 

"JAMES  BUCHANAN. 
"RICHARD  PAKENHAM." 

The  peaceful  settlement  of  the  Oregon  question  was  a 
grand  example  of  the  candor  which  marked  the  diplomacy 
of  both  the  nations  interested  from  1818  to  1846.  Much 
animadversion  had  been  ventilated  through  the  newspapers  of 
both  countries ;  but  the  spirit  of  justice  shown  by  the  diplomats 
of  each  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  Had  either  nation  been 
aware  of  the  immense  value  of  the  country  in  dispute,  the  issue 
might  have  had  a  different  termination.  It  was  fortunate  they 
were  not,  otherwise  blood  and  carnage  might  have  tarnished 
the  pages  of  Anglo-American  history  for  the  third  time.  The 
conclusion  of  the  Oregon  treaty  was  the  last  link  in  the  chain 
that  had,  step  by  step,  brought  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes  the 
fairest  portions  of  North  America.  The  power  of  Spain  had 
vanished  as  America  had  advanced  westward,  the  reason  fc» 
which  was  that  her  political  tyranny,  as  well  as  religious  intol 
erance,  were  not  suited  to  the  wants  of  the  pioneer  spirit,  so 
jealous  of  liberty  and  so  able  to  maintain  it  as  were  the  Amer 
ican  people. 

ACCESSIONS   OF  TERRITORY  TO   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

At  the  Treaty  of  Peace  that  closed  the  American  Revo 
lution  Great  Britain  was  not  without  a  lingering  hope  that 
by  the  subtle  logic  of  diplomacy  she  could  arrange  terms  with 
her  rebellious  colonies  without  granting  them  absolute  inde 
pendence;  but  the  American  Commissioners  proved  their  abil 
ity  to  cope  with  their  English  fathers  without  any  letting 
down  of  their  purposes.  Accordingly,  the  first  point  they 
made  was  that  they  should  be  received  as  the  representatives 
of  a  nation  "de  facto" ;  but,  said  the  British  Commissioners, 


()4  Oregon 

this  is  conceding  the  point  at  issue  in  advance.  To  which 
the  Americans  replied :  We  do  not  ask  independence ;  we  have 
won  it  already.  This  assertion  surprised  the  English,  and 
they  took  time  to  consider  it. 

After  laying  this  issue  before  the  throne  the  King,  George 
III,  reluctantly  consented.  The  all-important  question  now 
to  be  considered  was  the  boundary  of  the  new  nation;  and  in 
this  issue  the  ambitious  spirit  of  Young  America  was  manifest 
at  his  birth  by  his  determination  to  demand  the  Mississippi 
as  its  western  limits.  This  was  really  an  accession  of  terri 
tory  to  the  original  thirteen  colonies,  inasmuch  as  their  limits 
did  not  extend  thus  far  to  the  West.  Spain  protested  against 
this  demand  of  the  colonies,  but  England  had  little  friendship 
for  that  power,  and  after  considerable  hesitation  granted  the 
demands  of  the  American  Commissioners,  and  the  treaty  was 
signed  at  Paris,  September  5,  1783,  by  Benjamin  Franklin, 
John  Adams  and  John  Jay  on  the  part  of  the  United  States, 
and  by  David  Hartley  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain. 

FLORIDA    AND   PART   OF    PACIFIC    COAST    CEDED    TO    THE    UNITED 

STATES. 

By  a  joint  resolution  in  Congress,  January  15,  1811,  and 
by  acts  of  the  same  date  and  of  March  5  same  year,  passed  in 
secret  session,  the  United  States  claimed  the  right  to  take  pos 
session  of  territory  in  dispute  with  Spain  as  to  the  limits  of 
Florida.  This  resolution  was  not  published  till  1818,  at  which 
time  it  produced  a  belligerent  feeling  between  the  two  coun 
tries.  The  controversy  was  settled  by  the  treaty  of  February 
22,  1819,  wherein  Spain  ceded  Florida  to  the  United  States 
for  the  consideration  of  $5,000,000.  By  the  same  treaty 
she  conceded  to  the  United  States  any  territory  she  might 
claim  through  priority  of  discovery  or  otherwise  along  the 
Pacific  Coast  north  of  the  forty-second  parallel. 


Oregon  65 

RUSSIAN   CONCESSION   SOUTH   OF  54°   40". 

On  April  5,  1824,  Russia  conceded  to  the  United  States 
any  territorial  claim  she  might  hold  south  of  54°  40".  The 
treaty  conveyed  no  definite  territorial  title,  but  was  given  in 
a  spirit  of  international  courtesy  to  provide  against  future  dis 
putes. 

ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS. 

By  joint  resolution  of  Congress,  March  3,  1837,  the 
United  States  acknowledged  the  independence  of  Texas,  al 
though  Texas  was  then  at  war  with  Mexico  as  a  revolted 
province.  December  29,  1845,  tm's  province,  still  at  war  with 
Mexico,  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  one  of  its  States. 

TERRITORY  PURCHASED  OF  MEXICO. 

War  with  Mexico  ensued,  but  peace  was  restored  between 
the  two  Governments  by  the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo, 
February  2,  1848.  It  stipulated  that  $3,000,000,  cash  down, 
should  be  paid  to  Mexico,  and  $12,000,000  more  in  four  an 
nual  installments ;  and,  in  addition,  to  assume  debts  due  certain 
citizens  of  the  United  States  to  the  amount  of  $3,500,000; 
the  Mexicans,  on  their  part,  ceding  to  the  United  States  all 
territory  to  which  they  had  laid  claim  from  the  Gila  River 
northward  to  the  forty-second  parallel,  which  territory  em 
braced  our  present  States  of  California,  Nevada,  Utah,  Ari 
zona  and  parts  of  Colorado  and  New  Mexico.  The  eastern 
portion  of  New  Mexico  not  being  included  in  the  original 
claim  of  Texas  became,  by  a  special  clause  in  the  treaty,  a 
part  of  the  territory  purchased  by  the  United  States.  No  in 
demnity  was  given  to  Mexico  for  the  entire  Province  of  Texas. 

GADSDEN    PURCHASE. 

Independent  of  this  treaty,  the  Mexican  Government 
ceded  to  the  United  States  a  tract  of  land  south  of  the  Gila 
River,  as  showjn  on  the  map  accompanying  this  work,  called 


66  Oregon 

the    Gadsden    purchase    of    1853,    for    a    consideration    of 
$6,000,000. 

ALASKA  PURCHASED  FROM   RUSSIA. 

By  the  treaty  of  March  30,  1867,  negotiated  by  William 
H.  Seward,  Russia,  for  a  consideration  of  $7,200,000,  ceded 
Alaska  to  the  United  States,  including1  the  Pribyloff  Islands, 
with  their  valuable  seal  fisheries. 

HAWAII  TRANSFER. 

At  Honolulu,  August  12,  1898,  the  formal  transfer  of 
the  Hawaiian  Islands  was  made  to  the  United  States  by  San- 
ford  B.  Dole,  President  of  the  Provisional  Government  of 
Hawaii.  Mr.  Sewell,  United  States  Minister,  accepted  the 
cession  of  the  islands  in  behalf  of  the  United  States  with  sol 
emn  formality.  There  are  eight  principal  islands  in  the 
group;  area,  6,740  square  miles;  109,020  population  of  mixed 
races.  The  group  is  in  midocean,  between  the  western  coast 
of  the  United  States  and  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia,  2,089 
nautical  miles  from  San  Francisco. 

SPANISH   CESSIONS  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

At  the  treaty  of  peace  that  closed  the  Spanish  War  of 
1898,  held  at  Paris,  Spain  on  her  part  ceded  to  the  United 
States  the  Island  of  Porto  Rico  in  the  West  Indies,  the  Island 
of  Guam  of  the  Ladrone  group  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  the 
archipelago  known  as  the  Philippine  Islands.  The  treaty 
was  signed  by  the  Commissioners  of  their  respective  coun 
tries  December  10,  1898,  and  ratified  at  Washington,  January 
4,  1899,  the  United  States  on  her  part  agreeing  to  pay  to  Spain 
$20,000,000  within  three  months  after  the  ratification  of  the 
treaty. 


MERIWETHER    LEWIS. 

Captain  Meriwether  Lewis  was  murdered  and  robbed 
while  on  his  way  to  Washington,  D.  C.,  by  Joshua  Grinder, 
October  n,  1809.  in  what  is  now  the  county  of  Lewis,  Tenn. 

It  was  rumored  at  this  time  that  he  committed  suicide, 
but  doubtless  this  originated  in  the  east,  where  he  was  known 
to  be  of  a  hypochondriac  disposition,  but  which  affliction  had 
entirely  disappeared  with  his  active,  out-of-door  life  in  the 


west.  It  was  a  theory,  groundless  and  cruel,  that  even  the 
perpetrators  of  the  crime  did  not  stay  to  urge  in  their  own 
defense.  In  erecting  the  only  monument*  in  this  broad  land 
that  stands  to  the  memory  of  the  great  explorer,  the  state  of 
Tennessee  recognized  the  value  of  local  evidence  over  ground 
less  theory. 

*Sincc  the  above  was  written  news  has  come  to  the  writer  that  the 
people  of  Portland,  Ore.,  are  about  to  erect  a  memorial  monument  to 
Lewis  and  Clarke,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  president  of  the  United  States, 
assisting  in  laying  the  corner  stone. 

(67) 


68  Meri wether  Lewis 

The  monument  was  built  at  the  cost  of  $500,  appropri 
ated  by  the  general  assembly  of  Tennessee  in  1848.  Its  base 
is  of  uncut  sandstone,  surmounted  by  a  plinth  of  Tennessee 
marble,  on  which  were  cut  the  inscriptions.  Above  this  rises 
the  marble  shaft,  about  twelve  feet  in  height,  roughly  broken 
at  the  top,  emblematic  of  the  violent  and  untimely  end  of  a 
glorious  career.  Five  years  before  erecting  the  monument 
the  general  assembly  passed  an  act  creating  the  county  of 
Lewis.  The  introductory  clause  of  the  act  read  as  follows: 
"In  honor  of  Captain  Meriwether  Lewis,  who  has  rendered 
distinguished  services  to  his  country,  and  whose  remains  lie 
buried  and  neglected  within  its  limits."  The  new  county  was 
carved  out  of  four  others  cornering  near  the  grave,  in  nearly  a 
circle  with  it  as  a  pivotal  point. 

Of  him  Thomas  Jefferson  said :  "His  courage  was  un 
daunted;  his  firmness  and  perseverance  yielded  to  nothing  but 
impossibilities.  A  rigid  disciplinarian,  yet  tender  as  a  father 
to  those  committed  to  his  charge.  Honest,  disinterested,  lib 
eral,  with  a  sound  understanding  and  a  scrupulous  fidelity  to 
truth." — VERNE  S.  PEASE,  in  The  Southern  Magazine,  Feb 
ruary,  1894. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


RUFUS   BLANCHARD    2 

MEDAL  TO  COM MEMORATE  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE 6 

THOMAS  JEFFERSOX 14 

NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 20 

ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON 23 

J A  M  ES  MONROE   •  •  .  26 

BARBE'  MARBOIS   •  • 28 

MERIWETHER  LEWIS 50 

WILLIAM  CLAR K 50 

MONUMENT  TO  MERIWETHER  LEWIS 67 


INDEX. 


LOUISIANA. 

American  Revolution — How  It  was  Conceived 12 

Amiens,  Treaty  of 13 

European  Nations  Involved  in  American  Affairs n 

France — The  Extent  of  Her  Territory  in  North  America 9 

French  and  Indian  War — Its  Issue-  • 10 

French  Revolution — What  It  Came  from. 12 

George  II,  King  of  England — His  Fears n 

Jefferson's  Confidential  Letter  to  Monroe 18 

King  Rufus — London — Receives  Proposition  from  British  Government.  .  29 

Livingston  Happily  Surprised  at  This  Offer 24 

Livingston's  Letter  to  Monroe 24 

Lord  Hawkesbury — His  Opinion  of  Treaty  of  Amiens 15 

Louisiana  Explored  by  La  Salle 9 

Louisiana  Formally  Transferred  from  Spain  to  France 32 

Louisiana  Formally  Transferred  to  United  States. 33 

Louisiana  Limited  on  North  and  West  and  South 13 

M.   de  Marbois    Makes  a  Defined   Proposition  to  the  American   Nego 
tiators  24 

Mississippi  River,  Navigation  of 16 

Monroe,  James 17 

Monroe  Arrives  in  France 24 

Napoleon  Bonaparte • 12 

Napoleon — His  Rising  Power 13 

Napoleon    Bonaparte — Ready    to    Negotiate    for    Sale    of    Louisiana    to 

United  States 19 

Napoleon's    Remarkable    Colloquy    with    the    English    Minister    at    the 

Tuileries 19 

Napoleon  Offers  to  Sell  the  Whole  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States.  . .  22 

Oglethorpe,  Governor  9 

Pathetic  Scene  when  the  United  States  Flag  is  Raised  and  the  French 

Lowered  at  New  Orleans 34 

Pitt,  William — His  Courage n 

San  Ildefonso,  Treaty  of 13 


INDEX — CONTINUED. 

Spain — Extent  of  Her  Territory  in  North  America 9 

Spain — Builds  Forts  East  of  Mississippi  River 16 

Spain — Protests  against  the  Transfer  of  Louisiana 30 

Spain  Recants 31 

The  Family  Compact 12 

Toussaint  L'Ouverlure   15 

Treaty  for  the  Sale  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States  Signed 27 

Treaty  Ratified  by  France 29 

Treaty  Ratified  by  the  United  States 30 

The  Louisiana  Treaty 35 

The  Convention  between  the  United  States  and  the  French  Republic, 

of  Same  Date  with  the  Louisiana  Treaty 40 

OREGON. 

Alaska  Purchased  from  Russia 66 

Astoria  Founded 53 

British  Rival  Claims  to  Oregon 51 

Emigration  to  Oregon  by  Caravans 58 

Florida  and  Part  of  Pacific  Coast  Ceded  to  the  United  States  by  Spain.  .   64 

49th  Parallel  Agreed  on  by  Both  Nations. 61 

Gadsden  Purchase 65 

Gray,  Robert 52 

Hawaii  Transfer 66 

Hudson  Bay  Company 55 

Lewis  and  Clarke's  Exploration  of  Oregon 52 

Lewis  and  Clarke — Portraits 50 

Meriwether  Lewis,  Death  of 67 

Oregon 51 

Oregon — American  and  British  Joint  Occupation 56 

Oregon — Joint    Occupation   Discontinued 59 

President  Polk  Relinquished  His  Demand  for  54°  40' 59 

Russia  Concedes  Territory  South  of  54°  40' 65 

Spanish  Cessions  to  the  United  States  in  1898 66 

Spanish  Claims  to  Oregon 51 

Territory  Purchased  of  Mexico 65 

The  Oregon  Treaty 60 

Utrecht,  Treaty  of 54 

Webster— Ashbttrton  Treaty 58 


CHICAGO,  May,  1881. 
RUFUS  BLANCHARD, 

Dear  Sir: 

We  have  received  and  read  your  book,  "  The  Discovery  and  Conquests 
of  the  Northwest,  with  the  history  of  Chicago,"  and  take  this  means  of 
bearing  our  testimony  to  the  zeal,  industry,  thorough  research  and  faithful 
record  made  by  you,  of  the  times  and  events  covered  by  your  volume.  We 
think  you  are  entitled  to  public  gratitude  for  the  ability  with  which  you  have 
collected  this  store  of  historical  detail  concerning  the  early  history  of  the 
Northwest,  especially  of  Illinois  and  Chicago,  and  for  the  entertaining 
manner  in  which  you  have  presented  that  history  for  the  instruction  of 
present  and  future  generations. 

J  YOUNG  SCAMMON,       W.  F.  POOLE, 

J.  W.  SHKAHAN, 

ANDREW  SHUMAN, 

ZEBINA  EASTMAN, 

WILBUR  F.  STOREY, 

O.  F,  FULLER. 

GEORGE  SCHNEIDER, 

J.  S.  RUMSEY, 

MARK  SKINNER. 


H.  W.  BLODGETT, 
WILLIAM  BLAIR, 

B.  W.  RAYMOND, 

C.  B.  FARWELL. 
MARSHALL  •'"IELD, 
O.  W.  NIXON, 

L.  Z.  LEITER, 
JOHN  A.  JAMESON, 


J.  MEDILL, 
W.  H.  WELLS, 
WM.  ALDRICH, 
G.  S.  HUBBARD, 
J.  D.  CATON, 
PERRY  H.  SMITH, 
GRANT  GOODRICH, 
WM.  HENRY  SMITH, 


The  above  is  a  copy  of  a  circular  presented  me  at  the  time  of  the 
publication  of  the  book  described.  It  is  now  to  be  republished  with 
revisions  and  another  volume  added  to  it— the  whole  to  be  complete  in 
twelve  parts. 

R.  B. 

CHICAGO,  January,  1899. 
RUFUS  BLANCHARD, 

Dear  Sir: 

Realizing,  as  we  do,  the  importance  of  an  authentic  history  of  Chicago 
from  cotemporary  sources,  to  be  handed  down  from  our  own  times  to 
futurity,  we,  the  undersigned,  hereby  approve  the  opinions  given,  in  the 
above  circular,  by  the  signers  thereof,  and  we  confide  to  you  our  assistance 
in  continuing  the  work. 


The  above  described  work  consists  of  two  volumes  of  672  pages  each,  in  two  styles. 
BEST  STYLE,  LINEN  PAPER,  DECKLE  EDGE,  GILT  TOP,  FULL  BOUND  IN  SEAL,  $5  00  per  Vol. 

COMMON  STYLE,  HALF  BOUND  IN  SEAL,  RED  EDGE '    j?  50       " 

RUFUS  BLANCHARD,  169  Randolph'street,'  Chicago. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed, 
icwed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


1198669 


SEP    8'66-9Pft 


LOAN  Dfc.Hr. 


EG.  CI1L     jyf.)  3      1981 


OCT  1  4999 
7 


LD  21A-60m-10,'65 
(F7763slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


